Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker promised a “revolutionary” economy seat. And that would be hard to do for an airline whose CEO has already claimed in the past that they don’t need to offer premium economy — because their economy product is already premium economy.
The airline already offers one of the best products in the world. There’s no reason to over hype. But their CEO is aviation’s greatest troll and simply cannot seem to help it.
- When Qatar was about to announce – in a mere 8 days – they’d be joining oneworld he put out a statement saying they weren’t joining oneworld (“No, we will not. It’s all rumors.”)
- The man tells reporters he won’t purchase aircraft and then buys them only to reject them from the manufacturer over quality issues he won’t specify.
- When Air France was complaining about his airline’s service to the country he went and got himself awarded the French Legion of Honor for his service and commitment to France at large.
- He trolls US airline executives claiming that ‘Delta flies crap airplanes’ and that the major US airlines’ executives ‘are sitting around smelling glue’. He claimed that ‘on “crap American carriers” you’ll “always be served by grandmothers.”. He announced that Qatar Airways’ Atlanta – Doha route was launched for spite.
- After being rebuffed by American Airlines when he wanted to buy a stake in the US carrier, he went and invested in JetSuite which then announced a plan to move its base of operations to Dallas Fort-Worth and grow its operation to up to 100 regional jets.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker with Donald and Melania Trump in 2007, via Doha News
So what is this new revolutionary product like? Any other economy seat with “enhanced legroom” and 13.3″ screens.
The new slimline seat will debut on the airline’s Airbus A321neo, the first of which will be delivered this year. It will be a shell seat that reclines into its own space. Here are the actual seats:
Credit: Frederik Cyrus Roeder
Qatar also wants you to know that they recycle.
Credit: Frederik Cyrus Roeder
Economy – where most passengers sit – doesn’t get enough focus from airlines. It’s good to see Qatar Airways investing at the margin here, though I’m skeptical about the comfort of any slimline seat for long haul. I recently sat in a Qantas coach seat for a couple of hours and marveled at the padding which made such a difference in comfort.
To me though claims about how revolutionary the product is — when the actual product doesn’t match the hype — undermines credibility. I may be in the minority though. It may just be that we’re so jaded it’s necessary to overhype in order to get people to pay attention. It may be that we all know economy isn’t going to be revolutionary, and discount accordingly. Put another way, we should be taking Akbar al-Baker seriously but not literally.
The only thing this mongrel didn’t open his big mouth about was when he completely savaged the Not So Very Privilege Club last May 27. All of a sudden, Mongrel Boy was silent. He didn’t want to tell his most loyal customers he was devaluing it, basically stealing money from them. Whacking us with massive fees because mongrel boy was sending the airline broke. Doubling the number of points we needed to claim a loyalty flight. Halving or even making only one third of the seats available for loyalty flights. Oh no, no notice, no warning, done overnight, like a mongrel dog thief. He treats those who were loyal like scum, like filth. I’ve had it with this mongrel and his mongrel dog airline. Sooner One World stands up and says “You’re fired Qatar” the better. Get out. Piss off.
The slimline seats that QR will use are going to me miserably uncomfortable too.
These kind of seats make flying more miserable than it used to be in economy class.
So Mr. al-Baker says that: ” ‘Delta flies crap airplanes’ and that the major US airlines’ executives ‘are sitting around smelling glue’. He claimed that ‘on “crap American carriers” you’ll “always be served by grandmothers.”.”?
Many of your readers would agree! Akbar is crazy like a fox!
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the “buzz” that Qatar was going to install a staggered seat configuration in coach. Now that would be revolutionary! (how good it would be, I don’t know). Obviously, the buzz was wrong, and we got this ho-hum announcement. I will say that any int’l airline that understands why coach seat recline should not take away from the space of the pax behind you is a step in the right direction. Too many foreign airlines, especially the low cost ones, allow way too much recline even when they’ve reduced the pitch between rows.
9 across on a 777 with a guaranteed 34” of pitch without slimline seats would be revolutionary.
Cloth seats (instead of plastic), 13.3″ screens (instead of no screens), high powered USB-C (instead of obsolete USB-A), 19° recline (vs. almost none), that’s a solid product unlike, let’s say, AA’s Oasis on similar planes doing routes that are even longer.
Kudos to QR. May it continue to bring revenues.
Crazy Gary Leff promises another click bait article. Does he deliver? Indeed he does!
American airline execs sitting around sniffing glue??
How dare he! On their salaries they can afford the finest drugs possible!
Its a damned sight more impressive than BA’s latest designs and shows at least a modicum of consideration for the passengers unlike the current “cram them in and offer the best of what our competitors did a decade ago, unless it requires significant outlay”.
Economy is never going to be brilliant by definition but this is clearly an attempt to improve the experience with more sincerity than other CEO’s…. “£6billion investment for passengers” you mean essential fleet renewal Mr Cruz as a function of massive historic under investment and literally flying your airframes to the scrap heap. If it really were for passengers, would the densification, reduction in seat padding, removal of restrooms, reallocation of galley space, etc be in the spec for the new BA fleet?