Qatar Airways recently celebrated a decade of regularly scheduled flights to the Scottish capital. According to the Scottish Daily Express, the European head of Qatar Airways, Eric Odone, says travelers can look forward to experiencing the world’s best business class when flying from Edinburgh Airport.
Mr Odone reportedly told the Daily Express that he wants to introduce the Airbus A350-1000 to the Edinburgh-Doha route, which recently marked its 10th anniversary. This upgrade would increase capacity and introduce the highly acclaimed QSuite business class to the route.
“Traditionally, it’s about upgrading the aircraft and making sure we can provide the best products, so I think the next step for Edinburgh would be to get the top, top aircraft, potentially the A350/1000 with the QSuite on, which would be wonderful for Scottish passengers.”
Mr Odone clarified that nothing has been set yet regarding introducing the QSuite.
“It’s not planned, but I’m hoping we’ll be able to do that in the future. Add extra capacity, particularly in business class. We are always looking at optimizing and adding capacity.” If he thought QSuite business class would be coming to Scotland, he added: “That’s my objective, I would love to.”
He also highlighted the strength of demand for Qatar Airways services in Scotland, saying,
“The diversification is much stronger from Edinburgh than other destinations. We sell the entire network from Edinburgh, and there’s no pocket of communities or diasporas that fill up the plane in a big ratio. That’s quite useful because some routes depend on one community, and Edinburgh isn’t; it’s a substantial, steady network contributor.”
As readers may remember, SQ321 suffered severe turbulence, leading to a 73-year-old British man dying of a suspected heart attack and dozens more being injured on a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore last month when the plane dropped 178ft in one second.
Photo: Bradley Caslin | Shutterstock
Days later, six passengers and six crew members were injured on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin after it encountered turbulence over Turkey. The aircraft landed safely, much like the SQ321 flight. However, unlike the previous incident, the flight crew determined it was safe enough to continue to the final destination, a diversion deemed unnecessary. One flight passenger reported that some people hit the cabin ceiling during the turbulence.
Emergency services met the aircraft at Dublin Airport.
When asked about the recent incident, the European Head of QR said the following.
“Those incidents are regrettable, and what matters is the care to the passengers and the crew, of course, because they were equally impacted. Ultimately, there are a lot of international regulations on what should happen, and that was followed, so unfortunately, it occasionally happens.”
He sought to reassure the public that onboard equipment detects severe turbulence in the vast majority of cases. Mr Odone concluded,
“There’s enhanced technology to detect potential turbulence, there are things like shared initiatives on optimizing flight plans and route planning to make sure that turbulence is identified, and in most cases they are, that’s why the incidents are sporadic.”
Have you experienced severe turbulence? What was it like? Let us know your story in the comments.
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