Qatar Airways is losing patience with Boeing it seems over the 787 Dreamliner deliveries – and the lack of thereafter.
So much so that the CEO – Akbar Al Baker – is stating this is threatening the growth of the airline.
It seems that the 787’s destined for Qatar are suffering from what Al Baker describes as a “a creeping delivery date”, with the first unit shown off at Farnborough this year, with it due to be handed over in September.
The handover has not taken place as of yet.
This has put the plan of running 787 from Doha to London on ice for a while. Although Qatar has five new routes to come, Al Baker states
“Others [routes] we will have to delay due to the 787 deliveries, which is very disappointing to Qatar Airways,”
“We are now at the mercy of the manufacturer of the 787 to fulfil our growth, which is very difficult for us to digest as we never thought we would have been failed so badly by Boeing”
Words you don’t really want to hear out of a major player in the Gulf Region. The other set of words that Boeing will not want to hear from Al Baker in relation to delays in delivery of aircraft are so few, but so loaded.
Al Baker says the airline “now has to look at all our options” regarding the fleet to support the expansion.
Boeing has a big issue on their hands as both companies have had major coming together over the 787 and the continued delays to the delivery of the aircraft.
Whilst delivery speed is improving (compared to earlier this year), it seems Qatar is almost out of patience with Boeing. How this will affect future orders – as well as “looking at other options” is to come.
However, as Qatar will know with the A380 and any new aircraft coming off the development line – delays will happen. Whilst contractual arrangements can handle the fiscal side, the operations side will suffer unless another plan is there and waiting…