Qatar Airways appears to be adjusting capacity to Cape Town, with the announcement the airline is to deploy a Boeing 777 to South Africa.
Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER landing at Heathrow – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
Qatar Airways used to use a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on this route. For the winter season, this is being scaled up to a Boeing 777-300ER according to Business Traveller.
So, why did I title this upgrades and downgrades for this change to the Cape Town route? From a capacity viewpoint, it’s an upgrade with 158 extra seats per flight – the Boeing 787 has 254 seats, whilst the high capacity 777-300ER gas 412 seats
From a passenger experience, its one heck of a downgrade. In Business Class, the seats are the old flat bed seats, set in a 2-2-2 formation. This means there is no direct aisle access for window seat passengers… and slightly less space.
In Economy Class, the picture isn’t much prettier – with 10 across economy seating, and an IFE system that has seen better days. I had flight aboard one of Qatar Airways Boeing 777-200LRs in its old configuration to give you an idea of the seating and IFE experience.
Compared to the Qatar Airways 787s, the IFE experience is lacking. Although with seat width almost the same… it’s going to be a squeeze aboard the plane.
It might be an idea to compare and contrast for yourself at the Qatar Airways fleet page at http://www.qatarairways.com/global/en/our-fleet.page.
On the plus side, extra capacity is always welcome – it can help drive prices lower especially to Cape Town. On the minus side, the passenger experience will be… lacking.
It’s always a tough balance to achieve.
EDITORS NOTE: Updated 5th December to add fleet details.
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Rubbish. Looks like “winter” is through at least the end of May. Had a few flights on the 787 I was looking forward to.
Makes sense because it’s high season down there, but it’s a shame because I recently flew this route on the 788 and loved Qatar’s business class on that plane…