Qatar Airways increases travel in Cardiff
Qatar Airways working on increasing travel traffic at Cardiff
Qatar Airways have recently announced an increase in the number of passengers using the Cardiff-Doha route. This is an improvement when compared to the slow patronage they had when the route was first announced.
Qatar Airways expressed their dissatisfaction about the low turnout of passengers for the newly launched route. This was announced in July when Akbar Al Baker, the Chief Executive Officer of the airport was speaking to the press. He further went on to say that they were hoping that things would change for Cardiff with time.
Between the 1st of May and late August, it was revealed that approximately 30,000 travellers used the route—August being the month with the highest traffic (These statistics were obtained from the Civil Aviation Authority).
Though it is quite early to be certain whether the Cardiff-Doha course would yield enough profit. The present projection for the end of the first year is a passenger traffic of 90,000 compared to a 150,000 capacity.
The Cardiff airport belongs to the government of Wales and they have injected funds into the route to cement the relationship between the airport and Qatar Airways. In July, the British Broadcasting Corporation revealed that the government of Wales in a bid to market the country would pay £1million to the Qatar Airways over a duration of 2 years. This has opened up opportunities for Exporters in Wales. The twitter account of Cardiff Airport made a tweet last week about how several organizations had started seizing this opening. Many have already boarded flights to Doha to market their goods to distributors.
Marketing a new route for any carrier often takes a duration of a year before you can be certain if it is going to be a success or failure. Qatar Airways’ success at marketing the Cardiff-Doha route will be determined by several things. Some of them are:
- Where a passenger will be coming from and the worth of currency in that area. Passengers from a low currency region will not generate as much profit compared to someone from an optimal currency region.
- The flow of traffic using the business class and the economy class of the airline.
- The number of goods which are separately transported in bulk by the airline is also great factor
- Where passengers are travelling to also matters. This is because travellers who are going straight to Doha and nowhere else will produce more profit than those who are travelling on from there to other places. Though it is important to note that those travelling on from Doha will help the total network of the airline.
All these factors considered, there is great optimism that this new route will end up being a success.
