Congressional recognition, a proclamation and an inaugural non-stop flight from Doha, Qatar, to Houston, Texas – oh my.
After a year of planning and about 17 hours in the air, Qatari dignitaries and members of the media (and even a couple of people seeking medical attention at the world renowned medical facilities) landed in Houston about 5:18 p.m. yesterday to mark the first of daily Qatar Airways direct flights connecting the two energy cities.

Houston city officials, media and invited guests formed two lines, creating a pathway down which the delegates were expected to walk on their way to the press conference table and podium, but the “tunnel” actually collapsed into a horseshoe once they came through the airport doors to the awaiting audience.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al-Baker; Ali Al Rais, executive vice president, commercial, Qatar Airways; and Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri, ambassador to the Embassy of the State of Qatar, based in Washington, D.C., were on-hand to address those in attendance with a formal press conference, while many other delegates provided support.

Steve Smith, former news anchor for KHOU-TV, Channel 11, and City Controller Annise Parker welcomed the delegates to the city on behalf of Mayor Bill White and other city officials.

“Let’s begin by extending a giant Texas-size welcome to Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Mr. Akbar Al-Baker as well as the VIP delegation — Qatar Airways executives and media members who were this that flight,” Smith said.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony consisted of several pairs of what Smith described as “Texas-sized scissors” and delegates from both cities easily snipped through the fabric, officially kicking off the event.

It just makes sense

“Before this decision to come to Houston, Doha was one of the top unserved markets that we had identified for Houston,” said Rob Wiggington, Houston Airport System deputy director of marketing, communications and community affairs. “We have some natural synergies, natural reasons to fly closer together, to do business, and of course much of that has to do with the two cities and the two regions being major energy capitals of the world.”

Quoting some statistics to back up the affirmation of the business decision to become partners with Qatar Airways, Wiggington noted that Qatar is Houston’s sixth major trading partner in the Middle East. He also said that during the past six years, passenger traffic between the two cities has increased by 62%.

Parker, on behalf of the city, noted March 31 as Qatar Airways Day, presenting an official proclamation to the Qatari delegates.

“We now proudly add Qatar Airways to the list of outstanding international airlines contributing to Houston’s growth and economic strength,” Parker said, reading from the proclamation. “Qatar Airways will provide the quality air service that is now part of Houston’s greatness…This addition furthers Houston growth as the international gateway and gives Houston another opportunity to expand cultural and business ties.”

After delegates exchanged gifts, Al-Baker addressed the audience.

“We are here at last. Qatar Airways maiden flight from Doha to Houston has finally touched down in the city,” Al Baker said. “There is synergy between my country and Houston. My country is the home to the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves. It is also the world’s largest exporter of LNG [liquefied natural gas]. It’s one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with growth earmarked to be 9% in 2009 while most of the economies in the world are shrinking … in 2007, U.S. companies invested over US$7 billion in Qatar,” just to mention a few of the statistics that show Qatar as a growing world energy leader. While the population is only about 1.56 million, the local to expat residents ratio percentage is 20:80 with a large American-based community, he noted.

Al-Baker estimated the company’s growth to be 35% in 2008 and 2009, carrying more than 12 million passengers, “keeping in mind that in the whole of 1996, we only carried 400,000 passengers,” he said.

The new Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft, which was delivered to Qatar Airways last month, is reserved exclusively for the Houston-to-Doha trip. It has a 180-degree, 6-ft 4-in. flat bed for business class traveler, “keeping in mind the very tall Americans who travel with us,” Al-Baker said. “It is a greener and leaner aircraft, very fuel efficient, more environmentally friendly, and of course with lower carbon emissions of any airliner per seat kilometer.”

He also noted the airline will be launching a new product within the next year that will be “unimaginable in the luxury of air travel.”

Al-Hajri noted his pleasure with having the airlines flying to Houston, saying part of his job is to help bring  the United States and Qatar closer and improve relations. “I’m very happy today to see this flight come in here,” he said. “As Winston Churchill said, there are two kinds of speeches: one short and one long. The short is thank you, and the long is thank you very much.”

Environmental commitment

While noting the airplanes in Qatar Airways fleet are “greener and leaner,” Al-Baker outlined plans to move to a biofuel blend fuel as well as an effort to reduce its carbon impact.

“Not forgetting all this growth, we also have corporate social responsibilities in mind. We want to fly Oryx green. We want to pioneer the next-generation fuel research, which we will be announcing in the not-too-distant future, but with all this, we would also be the first airliner in the world to be powered by GTL [gas-to-liquids], which will be a very fuel-efficient, very low-carbon emissions from our engines, and our real desire is to have a carbon neutral growth.”

Future destinations

During last night’s event, Al-Baker announced plans to expand to three new U.S. destinations — the airlines already flies direct to Doha from New York’s JFK International Airport, Washington state’s Dulles International Airport and Houston’s George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport — as well as three international locations (South Africa as well as expansions in China and Japan).

Previous coverage

Fuel for Thought covered the Qatar-based press conference in February about plans to connect the two energy cities.

The March issue of FUEL magazine also mentions the Doha trip in the editor in chief’s letter.

Related events

Cathay Pacific in the middle of March added Houston to its cargo service flight route.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.