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In terms of manpower, Qatar Airways redeployed employees from other areas of the business – for example its Cabin Crew and Ground Services staff – to join the airline’s global network of customer contact centres to help manage the large volume of online requests and customer phone calls. The airline has also worked hard to make the refund and rebooking process as easy as possible for its trade partners, continuing to use the industry standard global distribution system (GDS) – a largely automated process that is simple to use for travel agents – to pay out refunds. Although Qatar Airways is now seeing a decrease in the number of refund requests, it remains committed to honouring its policies to passengers and trade partners. Qatar Airways is one of the few global airlines to have never stopped flying throughout this crisis and continues to utilise its full fleet of 30 Boeing 787 and 49 Airbus A350 aircraft. The airline’s variety of modern, fuel-efficient aircraft has meant it can continue flying by offering the right capacity in each market. Due to COVID-19’s impact on travel demand, the airline has taken the decision to ground its fleet of Airbus A380s as it is not commercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market. With entry restrictions around the world now easing, the airline continues to lead the recovery of global travel, operating over 500 weekly flights to over 80 destinations worldwide via Hamad International Airport (HIA).
