Qatar Airways was pleased to host the first ever oneworld Operations Control Conference in Doha, Qatar, on March 11 and 12, 2015.
Held in the airline’s state-of-the-art Operations Control Centre, the conference was attended by representatives from a majority of the oneworld airlines, with airberlin, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, SriLankan Airlines and US Airways all present. Also joining the delegates on the second day of the conference were members of the oneworld Executive team.
The meeting provided a forum in which airport operations professionals could further develop their relationships and synergies with their peers, share their professional experience, gain knowledge, learn best-practices and implement measures in driving costs down, and efficiencies up.
Between them, the small-knit oneworld alliance airline operations teams manage more than 14,250 flights a day across a combined fleet of some 3,500 aircraft, carrying 1.4 million passengers a day to more than 1,000 destinations in more than 150 countries.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, welcomed the delegates to the conference on day one of the meeting. “Qatar Airways, as both an airline and oneworld partner is extremely honoured to host the first ever oneworld Operations Control Conference. As part of the oneworld alliance, it is important for us to contribute as much as we can in all areas of our business, including operations, which is the backbone of all airlines,” said Mr. Al Baker.
“By coming together with our oneworld partners, we are giving our respective teams, and the individuals who are specialists in this area the opportunity to share their tremendous experience and best practices in operations. And this type of information exchange will benefit, not just our business, but just as importantly, our passengers in the long run.”
During the two-day conference the oneworld representatives discussed a wide range of topics related to the day-to-day management of their respective airlines including operations control structures and stakeholders, introduction of new fleet types, airline security and disruption recovery.
On-time performance was also a key discussion point as Iberia, Japan Airlines, airberlin and LAN Airlines are among the top 10 most punctual airlines worldwide. Additionally, Qatar Airways has achieved best on-time performance among the major Gulf carriers and Finnair is currently number one in Europe. The dedication and hard work of all the teams has resulted in oneworld receiving the FlightStats On-Time Performance award as the alliance with member airlines collectively achieving the best punctuality in both 2012 and 2014, the only two years the award has been presented.
Qatar Airways Chief Operations Officer, Captain Helmut Weixler, said: “The opportunity to spend two days with our industry peers, discussing, analysing, as well as increasing and developing our communication and support for one another has been invaluable. It is our hope that each of the participants walked away from this conference feeling that they had the opportunity to contribute, as well as the opportunity to learn something new.”