NG and Qatar...

[pons399]

One of NG's great mysteries is their recent fondness for Qatar. Yes they are very repetitive with other airlines as well (United, American, Southwest, BA, Chinese majors, ANA), but all of those are obvious, popular choices. So what's their rationale for Qatar?


Was it because of the World Cup? Perhaps so, but that was over 6 months ago, and we're still getting a deluge of Qatars every month.

Is the demand high? Doesn't seem like that at all; out of 24 currently-released Qatars, 14 are still not sold out. And it's not like these are old, niche types either.

Do they have an official partnership with Qatar a la GJ-Emirates? Not that we know of.

Maybe NG's owner/CEO is a fan? Seems the most likely.


Whatever the case, it's frustrating to see the same mediocre releases every month while other in-demand majors get entirely shafted.

 

[redriveraviation]

I'm thinking that during the production planning phases, they got in this mindset that not enough Qatar planes have been made, and they overcompensated for such. They have done this for several airlines. Even though better selections could've been made for those duplicates, it is nice to have more than enough than not enough!

 

[Mark22]

I can understand that it's cheaper to produce mulitple models with the same livery at once, but not that they release them at the same time. Who would buy all 3 777's from the December releases for example? Or did they split one regular batch into 3 smaller ones?

 

[YesterAirlines]

I tend to agree with you on this. I don't understand their fixation with Qatar either. It's neverstruck me as an airline people in the US, Europe or Asia particularly care about.

 

[Planeoldwill]

I think you could argue that there were certain models of Qatar that did deserve a release.

The 787-8 is one that hasn't been made for a long time aswell as the 777 in the normal livery and the oneworld. I could also understand them making the world cup plane aswell as it was relevant at the time.

However, I do think we've had enough and I would like to see something different. Etihad is one that they haven't done for awhile and I for one would quite like to get a regular livery - 9 or - 10 and possibly a few of the ADNOC liveries. They've also never attempted Gulf air which is surprising.