The Situation in Qatar

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The Situation in “Qatar” by Fazal Najimudeen



On a Monday Morning I wake up to this article, which jolted me out of bed in full attention to try and make sense of it. We are in a world surrounded by so many circumstances that has in many ways shaped our lives or has impacted our thought process. This was a shocker for I personally thought or was a hundred percent convinced that there will never be a dichotomy within the “GCC” Arab countries, and me being a person from the aviation Industry, I never expected it between the three major players in today’s airline industry which dominates the skies in every aspect; Price, Service and Technology. So within the hour the entire situation has been dissected, preconceived notions formed and the future of Qatar has been predicted to be gloomy and the darkest. The headline almost sounds like a promotional tagline “Food, Flights and Football” I might use it to promote tourism to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, I comment with due respect to the esteemed journalists from some of the most revered and the oldest news institutions of the world.



The reason for my response is purely non-political and the views are based on my own personal thoughts and also in the defence of our already ailing travel and tourism industry. A situation such as this, yes it is true and is for real, but creates undue havoc In the wake of a Monday morning with a barrage of phone calls, emails and what not, will I get a refund on my ticket will I be detained if I fly Qatar Airways, are my friends and family who has already travelled going to be stuck in their destination for an indefinite period of time and so on and so forth… Calm down guys nothing of that sort we live in the twentieth century with the best technology at hand, so much so you can change your travel plans inflight while you are travelling using the inflight Wi-Fi to connect to your airline’s website.



Yes there is a call for concern with all the airspace restriction and Qatar Airways scrambling to find new flight paths, the cost of air travel in and out of Qatar may or may not be impacted, but due to more devious flights routes the travel time may be longer than usual. But people always adapt to it with time, if one could recall many recent wars, the volcanic ash over the European skies, there were many changes to flight paths with increased fuels adjustment taxes levied by airlines and we all did pay the price and adapted to it and we still continue to pay fuel adjustment taxes.



I also read somewhere in between that approximately 40%!o(MISSING)f the food comes from outside of Qatar, on the same token I believe that over 50%!o(MISSING)f the Qatar population are of expatriates and this diplomatic issues with the neighbouring states would mean that many people would have to leave the shores of the pearl of the gulf of Arabia. “Qatar” so who are we kidding? The impact in my opinion will be beyond the borders of Qatar as contributing manpower, technology and everything else from outside of Qatar for the development of the State of Qatar, also contributes a significant share to the economy of those countries.



Conclusively speaking in defence of my friends in the airline industry and this case for Qatar Airways, they are an established organization managed by a group of a highly intellectual team, smart enough to figure out a way to compensate the longer flight durations.



Having served this industry for over thirty three years, I have seen many changes in trends, technology, service delivery and the list can go on, in the industry and I am sure many more to come in the years ahead of us, but the industry, the country and the people always adapt and move on.



My Best wishes to Qatar and its people, I have visited this small state and flown with their national carrier and have good things to say about them both.

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