At a press conference held during the IATA Ground Handling Conference (IGHC) in Doha this week, His Excellency Mr Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Group chief executive, announced exciting plans for Qatar Aviation Services (QAS).
A subsidiary of the Qatar Airways Group, QAS is the sole provider of ground handling services to all airlines that serve Doha’s Hamad International Airport – and it now intends to expand to other locations.
Al Baker explained: “2018 will be the year of QAS’s international expansion. We will roll it out across the Qatar Airways network, especially at airports where we have a high frequency of operations and an opportunity to establish a ground handling company.”
He noted that at some airports, while there may be competition between various handlers, quality is by no means guaranteed – and standards can be inconsistent from one location to another. Setting up branches of QAS throughout the Qatar Airways network will help the airline to control the quality of its ground handling in terms of processes.
In addition, this approach will see QAS’s systems and technology implemented across the network.
At this time Al Baker was unable to confirm specific locations involved in the expansion, saying only that the carrier would look first at those stations where the services provided by existing handlers “do not meet our expectations – which are very high”.
