Qatar Airways to drop First Class on some flights 11, March 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Qatar.Tags: First Class, First class picture, Getting rid of first class, Qatar airways, Qatar Airways First Class
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It has been announced that Qatar Airways is eliminating First Class seats from some of its new airplane orders. Whilst First Class is, generally speaking, never an airline’s most profitable section, this is still a curious move.
Firstly, Qatar is, according to various GDP per capita figures, the richest country on earth. Ergo, presumably a reasonably high proportion of its citizens can pay for First Class. Secondly, Qatar is one of only six 5 star airlines in the world, for which one presumably needs to have a full range of classes. Moreover, more generally, given the wealth evident in Qatar and the feel and impression that one gets from the country as a whole and Qataris specifically, getting rid of First Class is simply really rather unexpected.
In purely financial terms, the decision makes more sense; Business Class is where the real money is at in international aviation. Also, I’d be exceedingly surprised if they got rid of First Class on, for example, Doha- London or Doha-New York routes.
Update:
It’s been kindly pointed out to me that in fact Qatar Airways haven’t had First Class on DOH-NYC/LON fights for some time now, and that the business section is just much bigger. I assumed that monied Qataris would ‘demand’ first class to such destinations. One learns something new every day…
The Gulf blog 
i’d also like to add that first class is the most profitable followed by business class and then economy for any airline as long as they can fill the seats. the margins are much higher.
You sure? I thought that they spent so much on First Class – from luxury wash-bags, suites, Single Malt Whiskeys etc – that Business Class was the most profitable…I’ve certainly read this in a few places. I am, though, far from an expert on this topic.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Perhaps I’m getting confused and its Business passengers that I’m referring to and not the class…
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