- Qatar Airways operated
the world's first fully vaccinated flight
on the 6th of April, 2021,
beating their competitor, Emirates, by a few days.
But the Qatar flight was very different
to the Emirates flight.
The Qatar flight was an invite flight only,
to staff, to travel partners, and media.
I think the decision to operate that flight,
obviously driven by the Group CEO,
who want to put his airline in the news headlines.
Let's take a look at that flight.
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to the world's first fully vaccinated flight.
- [Passenger] Good morning!
(both reply in foreign language)
Yeah, looking forward to this flight.
- We too.
Very honoured to have you onboard.
- So what is so special making this flight today
is it's a fully vaccinated flight,
starting with the flight deck, cabin crew,
passenger, even the ground staff,
perhaps the (indistinct), I don't know yet.
This effort is making a record to rejoin our back
a normal life, without mask and getting over this pandemic,
and move on forward.
The flying time today two hours and a half.
We will be cruising at 40,000 feet,
flying over Doha, UAE, Maskat in Oman,
making a U-turn to rejoin Doha.
- Our call sign today is Qatari 6421,
which is actually a weird number,
but actually it's the date of today,
which is 6th of April '21,
and that to make history as a fully vaccinated flight
being done today.
(plane engine rumbling)
(Pilots speaking indistinctly)
(engine humming)
(pilots speaking indistinctly)
(upbeat music)
- Before on the flight,
I've got a rare chance to interview
the Chief of Qatar Airways.
So let's hear him out.
Your airline's doing very different
to all the other airline this crisis.
Other airlines are trimming routes,
cutting out operations, grounded,
but you keep flying during the pandemic.
You started launching flights instead of cutting out.
You've gone to Seattle, San Francisco, all the destinations,
so what is this?
Is this commercial sensible?
- Sam, you know me for quite some time,
and you know that I'm a very shrewd operator.
I will always take every single opportunity I have
to find revenue for my airline.
And when everybody shut their door,
people still want to travel,
and there we are to serve them.
We carried 3.8 million passengers,
we repatriated them.
When all the airlines left their passengers stranded,
we were there.
We will always go where we feel people need us,
and we will always go where we know there is opportunity.
Frankly, we are a state-owned company,
so there is no question of bailout.
Whatever funding we would get is an equity into the company.
And we, the largest long-haul carrier
operating in the world today,
we received the lowest equity injection of any airline,
who have received billions in state aid and subsidy.
(upbeat music)
- Doctor, everybody's wondering
when we were able to return to that normalcy of travel
without wearing mask, the borders will be open travelling.
Do you see that, with the vaccine, how this happening soon?
- So Sam, at the moment,
the advice from our Ministry of Public Health
is that we should wear masks
unless we're eating or drinking,
but I'm quite convinced that with more data,
and more experience,
we'll know that these vaccines
are actually very, very safe,
and that, we will, in the future,
be able to travel without masks.
Well Sam, medically, we'd like to try and vaccinate
the whole world, but economically,
that's not going to be viable within the next few months.
And so what we will find is that certain countries
will be able to vaccinate,
and their citizens will be able to travel more freely.
It's an economic reality.
- Do you require passenger eventually to be vaccinated
to onboard Qatar Airways?
- Eventually, I think, that will be a requirement
for many countries.
For example, Australia will not allow people
that are not vaccinated to enter the country.
If this pandemic continues,
and if there is no proper, robust treatment,
I think many other countries
will require that you have a vaccination passport
to get in.
(upbeat music)
- Today we are focusing on serving our full lunch service
for our 41 premium customers,
including customers who are in the Economy cabin.
It is a full premium services for today,
so I hope you will enjoy it.
(upbeat music)
- That is very nice because (indistinct)
is giving to me up, really.
- [Sam] This duck is huge!
- Yes.
- [Flight Attendant] Yeah, it is very nice.
- [Passenger] Very good stuff.
- [Sam] Are you sure that's duck?
- Amazing, amazing.
- [Sam] Yeah, you're sure that's duck
you're eating? - Yeah, I'm sure (indistinct).
- [Sam] Okay, okay.
(Donald Duck recording)
- Thank you. (all laughing)
- [Sam] Funny guy.
Now, how's your flight been?
- Oh, amazing fun, really.
- [Sam] How much you've travelled during the last year?
- Oh, I didn't travel during the last year.
This is my first flight.
- [Sam] You feel like same like before?
- Oh, amazing.
Especially with Qatar Airways.
- I seriously cannot find the right words
to describe our feelings today.
Just to getting back to our normal life, travelling.
- I'm so blessed (speaks in Spanish), for this blessing,
and I'm so lucky for being in this flight
with all fully vaccinated people,
enjoying these beautiful blue views,
and making history.
(speaks in Spanish)
- When you talk about an airline,
people think about the planes, maybe the food,
the cabin crew, the image, the marketing,
but when a lot of people think about Qatar Airways,
they think about you, His Excellency.
What will Qatar Airways be like without you?
Have you ever thought about that?
- We have a succession plan.
You know, it is something that I built with the full support
of my rulers, and the goodwill of the Qatari people.
And it is my duty to have a robust succession plan in place,
which is already there.
So if I'm there or not, Qatar Airways,
is a brand of my country, will continue.
And you know, all leaders, all managers,
all heads of department, come and go,
but the organisation still continue.
And this is what will happen with Qatar Airways.
Till the last day I am on this chair,
as the Group Chief Executive,
I will continue to do my service towards my country,
and the mandate given to me by His Highness, my ruler.
- Flights are resuming back to Saudi Arabia, to UAE,
what's that mean for Qatar Airways from now at this point?
- Well, it is a very positive development that happened.
We persevered during the difficult days,
now we are back into the mainstream.
Our operating costs have started to reduce,
what it really should be,
and we hope that business for all of us,
all the blockading countries together, comes to normalcy,
because I don't think that within families,
this kind of animosity, or bullying, is not fair.
And at the end, everybody realised
it was in the best interest to end this blockade,
and, you know, get our lives back to normal.
(upbeat music)
- This experience has been a reminder
of what life used to be like before the pandemic.
So it was a nice change to be able to cover something
that has a positive (indistinct) as a positive light.
- I travel quite a lot,
and travelling on a fully vaccinated flight is marvellous,
frankly, because I'd rather travel
with people that are vaccinated.
And, I think, I'm 70 plus,
and I don't have enough of my life, going forward,
to be stuck going nowhere.
- I'm Valerie from Trusted Travel Girl,
and I came all the way from New York to Doha, last minute.
I found out the day before I left,
and I'm so excited to be here.
This is so much better,
and of course, I feel so much safer.
Look at this, I have my own private little area
where I feel really safe, protected,
and away from everybody.
(upbeat music)
- What about the future of the A380?
Is there any plan to use some of them back?
- Frankly, Sam, we have already taken impairment
on five of them,
so we are writing off five of the 10 we have,
and if the pandemic continues to extend,
we may, over the next two, three years period,
take impairment on the remaining five.
I don't think, and I have been telling this
for much before the pandemic,
there is no future for the A380.
It was a wrong aeroplane in the wrong time.
It is something that passengers love.
They like to travel on an A380.
It's very quiet, it's very spacious,
but at the end of the day, for the operator,
it's really painful.
The operating cost, the maintenance cost,
the maintenance period.
You know, you put a 380 for a C check,
it is three times what a 777 will take,
or a 350-1000 will take.
You know, if you look at the fuel burn per seat mile,
it's way above any other aeroplane that is flying today.
And, you know, it is the aim of Qatar Airways
to keep on growing, and being carbon neutral in our growth,
that aeroplane doesn't help us.
And I think, not only that it is inefficient,
and some people still brag
that they're going to start operating,
and it's a very fine aeroplane,
let's see how long they will be able to sustain.
And after the pandemic, there is a huge movement
on the green front.
Passengers will not want to get into an aeroplane
that has high pollution rating.
So, you know, we need to do...
And in Qatar Airways, if tomorrow they produce an aircraft
that has a more efficient fuel burn,
we will immediately place order
for those aeroplanes .
(soft music)
- So Mr. Chui, how was the experience?
- [Sam] Good, just like any other Qatari Airways flight.
No less, no more.
- And, hopefully, next time we will see you
without the mask, and everything will be normal. (laughs)
- [Sam] Thank you so much.
(plane engine humming)
(mechanical voice counting down)
- Like everyone has been asking, and thinking,
do we really need to be fully vaccinated to travel,
to fly in the future?
To me, I think that requirement
is not mandated by the airline,
but is more depends on the destination country.
Right now, we are seeing quite a few country
wanting to reopen to accept fully vaccinated tourists only.
So we're still in this early stage,
developing solution,
hoping to see more light out of the tunnel,
and I will be continue to document
how aviation respond to the COVID crisis.
Thanks for watching today.