Airline expands economy class, cuts 1st class lounges

Qatar Airways confirmed on Thursday it will remove first class facilities on four A340-600 aircraft to accommodate more economy seats.

In a statement, the Doha-based airline told Arabian Business that first class lounges on the planes will be stripped out to make way for 40 economy seats from this September. The additional seats will boost capacity on each aircraft from 216 to 256 economy seats.

The eight first class and 42 business class seats will not be affected by the changes, the airline said.

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ CEO, said the decision to remove the lounges was taken following low interest in the service.

“We found that usage of the lounges was low,” he said. “The lounges provide passengers with a chance to sit and relax together on comfortable sofas during the flight in the ambience surroundings of a cocktail bar.

“However, our in-flight passenger surveys have shown that these lounges are not utilised as much as we had expected by passengers, who instead preferred to relax in our premium seats during their flight.”

He added removing the lounges would “provide more efficient use of the aircraft”.

Despite scaling back on first class services, Qatar Airways said it would continue expanding throughout 2009. The airline plans to add seven new routes, increase frequencies and capacity and introduce new aircraft this year.

The lounges were added to the A340s in 2006 as part of Qatar Airways’ ‘five-star service’ offering.

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