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Gulf Times Thursday, February 27, 2014

COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed Production Editor: C P Ravindran

P.O.Box 2888 Doha, Qatar editor@gulf-times.com Telephone 44350478 (news), 44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery) Fax 44350474

GULF TIMES No end in sight to Manchester Uniteds misery

For supporters reeling from Manchester Uniteds miserable 2-0 loss to Olympiakos in the Champions League, the sobering thought is that their club may not have even hit rock-bottom yet. With United dangerously close to an exit from this seasons competition and 11 points off the pace in the battle to qualify for next seasons tournament via the league, a bleak vision of their immediate future is emerging. During Alex Fergusons reign as manager, defeats were invariably shrugged off quickly. Bad results, on the rare occasions that they came in quick succession, were brushed off as blips , and United would invariably return to winning ways almost immediately. For Fergusons successor, David Moyes, however, United seem to lurch from one crisis to another, and the spirit of revolt that used to characterise the clubs reaction to adversity is nowhere to be seen. Moyes continues to insist that the players will get it right , but faced with the stark reality of the teams current fortunes, his words are beginning to ring hollow. There was shock when United lost three of their rst six games in the Premier League, but if anything, their form now is even worse. They have lost six of their rst 12 games in 2014; a period that has seen them eliminated from both domestic cup competitions, slip to 11 points below the top four, and now witnesses them clinging to life in a tournament that Ferguson prized above all others. Against Olympiakos on Tuesday, the sense of bewilderment at Uniteds non-performance was exacerbated by the fact that the English champions had travelled to Greece with a more than ample squad. Centre-backs Jonny Evans and Phil Jones were missing through injury, but the intimidating reputation of the Karaiskakis Stadium made it easy to imagine that Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic might have been selected instead of them anyway. Nani, the Portuguese winger, was also absent, and record signing Juan Mata cup-tied, but the mideld of Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley, Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young was one that had prevailed in matches against both Chelsea and Manchester City last season. For all Uniteds domestic woes, with a warm-weather break in Dubai and an encouraging 2-0 win at Crystal Palace behind them, the expectation was that they would raise their game to meet the occasion, but instead they produced one of their worst displays of the campaign. Despite the presence of both Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, United failed to test Olympiakos goalkeeper Roberto once, and it was not until Van Persie blazed over with eight minutes remaining that they even managed a meaningful attempt on goal. Commenting on the game for British television, former United captain Roy Keane was characteristically blunt in his assessment of his old sides failings. Weve been brainwashed that the Premier League is the best in the world - nonsense, the Irishman said on ITV. Its the best brand in the world but they have fallen behind, United more than most. They need six or seven players to rebuild the club. Gradually, the realisation is dawning at United that the rebuilding process may take longer than anyone at the club could have envisaged when Ferguson stepped down last May.

Hong Kongs Cathay Pacific is set to become the first mega Asian carrier to fly to Qatar from March 30.

Asian aviation giant set to make Qatar debut

One of the aviation industrys robust and most service-led airlines, Cathay will bring its renowned Asian charm to the Qatar market and further boost its footprint in the region
By Updesh Kapur Doha of the Northern Summer schedule changes as airlines around the world adjust their ights, timings and typically introduce new routes or scale back existing ones. The addition of Doha is a key move for Cathay in its overall Middle East strategy, which sees a shuffling of capacity from Hong Kong to key cities across the region over the next few weeks. Its Dubai service remains double daily; Bahrain will have three additional ights each week moving to a daily operation; Riyadh experiences reduced frequency from daily to ve ights a week; and both Jeddah and Abu Dhabi are taken off the roster. For years, Far East carriers have shied away from Qatar, unconvinced of the market potential in a country with a population of just over twomn people. True, the market is relatively small compared with many leading international airports around the world that have huge domestic catchment areas. But Qatar, which focuses on a hub and spoke model ying passengers from different parts of the world into its airspace to connect to other points, has made a case for itself. The agreement struck to bring Cathay to Doha is a smart move. Cathay has tied up with national carrier Qatar Airways, a fellow partner of the oneworld global airline alliance, to y its colours, product and service to these shores in what is a win, win for all. Aside from connecting passengers between both cities, Cathay will pick up traffic from its partner ying into Doha from other parts of the world before travelling onwards to Hong Kong and beyond to its wide network of pan-Asian destinations. The link-up is the rst tangible move by Qatar Airways to align with an alliance partner since joining oneworld in October 2013. Qatar Airways current double daily operation between Doha and Hong Kong will be split from the end of next month. While it will keep one of the frequencies, the other will be own by Cathay with little change in overall seat capacity. Strange you may say! But this is a fact of life in todays world of commercial aviation. Airlines are increasingly joining hands with each other. Strategic moves to provide passengers with better market reach, to share resources and to reduce operational costs. Historically, airlines have been ying their own aircraft to destinations for prestige, regardless of whether they are money-spinning or loss-making. Over the years though, economic challenges and the reality of a cutthroat, high cost business has sunk in, forcing airlines to get into bed with each other and share the risk. It has become the norm engaging in a variety of joint activities to keep costs under control while at the same offer an extensive product offering. Weve seen the marketing phenomena of code sharing on ights develop since the 1990s. Airlines apply their ight codes on each others services to make it more appealing to passengers and show carriers have a much bigger route network than the actual destinations served with their own metal. Airlines are more prepared to share prots and indeed losses by co-operating on routes than face the burden of a negative scenario operating on their own. The last 13 years or so have seen the birth of global alliances with airlines joining one of the big three groupings to jointly promote dedicated ights and offer passengers a seamless service to their nal destination. Of course the power of alliances integrating loyalty programmes for frequent travellers is a big bonus. In the case of Cathay one of oneworlds four founding airlines by working closely with Qatar Airways, its risk is mitigated. Both carriers will work to ll their respective planes on the Doha Hong Kong route, cross sell on each others services and jointly market their ights. For the passenger, the double daily service remains. The only change is two airlines cooperating on the same route feeding passengers onto each others ights. For Qatar Airways, it means freeing up a wide body aircraft on one of the twice-daily departures and repositioning it on an existing route or potential new one. Furthermore, the tie-up with Cathay will provide China hungry Qatar Airways with an improved alignment of services and better fares to onward domestic Chinese points via Hong Kong. The home-grown carrier currently operates 45 scheduled passenger ights each week spread across seven destinations in China Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and the recently launched Hangzhou. There are also a handful of dedicated freighter services. The China network has grown impressively since 2003 when Qatar Airways entered the market with ights to the countrys commercial capital of Shanghai. Together with subsidiary Dragonair, Cathay has an impressive network of over 30 destinations for Qatar Airways passengers to connect to across mainland China. Is Cathay now a trigger for the national carrier to strike similar arrangements with fellow oneworld members? It seems so. Qatar Airways charismatic CEO Akbar al-Baker has already alluded to this, going a step further by saying the airline was exploring revenue sharing options with oneworld partners. This could mean sharing ights, as in the case of the Cathay arrangement. But it could also mean splitting prots and losses on selected ights. It will not just be revenue sharing, but also loss-sharing. We have to be able to support each other, says alBaker candidly. Pursuing such a move represents a shift in strategy where Qatar Airways has traditionally own its own capacity to different markets around the world. Global reach can be achieved through natural expansion with own metal, but also through striking meaningful partnerships to spread the risk, share the risk and be more competitive. The year-old partnership between the UAEs Emirates and Australias Qantas is a good example where shared resource, shared capacity and shared revenue can positively impact rather than negatively affect the bottom line. As airports around the world go into overdrive to market their services to airlines across the globe, a prize catch will always make headlines. For Doha International Airport, which handled more than 23mn passengers last year, the arrival of a new tail will turn heads. US mega carrier United Airlines launched commercial ights to Doha in mid-2012 with a daily service from Washington DC via Dubai. Almost two years on, Cathay Pacic is the next biggie to follow in its footsteps. Are we going to see the tailns of oneworld carriers Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Iberia, Finnair, American Airlines or even Russias S7 Airlines grace the Doha runway soon? Only time will tell. Updesh Kapur is a PR & communications professional, columnist, aviation, hospitality and travel analyst. He can be contacted at updeshkapur@gmail.com and followed on twitter: @updeshkapur Cathay Pacific will soon fly to Doha thanks to a strategic link-up with national carrier Qatar Airways.

Despite the presence of both Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, United failed to test Olympiakos

ews this week of the imminent entry of another airline to Doha is a welcome boost for Qatars fastmoving aviation industry. And by no means is it a small player. Regional carriers and operators from the sub-continent currently make up the vast chunk of the 30 or so airlines ying in and out of the capital city. By nature of its home market, Qatar Airways is the dominant airline, but is playing a signicant role in the latest addition to Dohas skyline. A big time player from Asia has not had Qatar on the radar for years. Until now that is. In four weeks time, a world class Far East carrier will make its debut at Doha International Airport. Cathay Pacic is set to launch daily services from its Hong Kong hub on March 30. In doing so, Cathay becomes the rst of Asias airline giants to nally add Doha to its global route map. One of the aviation industrys robust and most service-led airlines, Cathay will bring its renowned Asian charm to the Qatar market and further boost its footprint in the region. March 30 also signals the start

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