Hamad International Airport (HIA) welcomed 120 million passengers since the beginning of its operations from May 2014 until the end of 2017.
Last year, Cargo observed an increase of 14.52%, with a total of 1.9 million tonnes in handling. HIA successfully recovered its passenger numbers with an average monthly increase of 3.75% in the second half of the year, after the initial drop in volume in June 2017 due to the restrictions imposed on the country.
HIA has been recognised for its punctuality, ranking among the most punctual airports, scoring 85.41% on-time performance (OTP), as demonstrated in aviation analysts OAG’s 2017 Punctuality Report released recently.
HIA’s resilience is due to its new strategic partnerships and to the combined efforts of the airport, its national carrier, Qatar Airways and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), who have worked together to encourage and promote tourism and travel in Qatar. While Qatar Airways accelerated its global expansion with the launching of ten new destinations in 2017, QTA’s efforts to allow visa-free entry for citizens of 80 countries makes Qatar the most ‘open country’ in the region, supporting HIA’s growth to a great extent. HIA also welcomed several new airlines which started operations in Qatar in 2017: Oman’s SalamAir, Kuwait’s Al Wataniya Airlines and Jazeera Airways, Bangladesh’s Regent Airways and US Bangla, and IndiGo, India’s largest and fastest growing low-cost carrier.
Engineer Badr Mohammed Al Meer, HIA Chief Operating Officer said that the strategic location, at the crossroads of the Eastern and Western part of the world, gives HIA a strong competitive advantage.
At HIA, we aim to offer a safe and seamless experience for our customers travelling through the airport. We will continue to put the passenger at the core of our strategy and our investments.’
2017 Achievements
2017 has been a successful year for HIA on multiple fronts. Engineer Al Meer added that since its opening in 2014, HIA’s overall achievements are unmatched by any other airport in the region as it continues to be one of the fastest-growing hubs in the world.
Sports and culture were among the key highlights of the year as HIA strengthened its Platinum sponsorship of German football team FC Bayern München, asserting Qatar’s role as a global leader in sports, and teaming up with Qatar Museums to launch a series of exclusive guided tours around iconic artworks by local and international artists, in line with the country’s effort to build a strong tourism and cultural landscape.
The year 2017 also marked two major strategic partnerships on HIA’s Smart Airport Vision: a Memorandum of Understanding with Huawei, to enable the airport’s digital transformation; and an agreement with global IT provider SITA, to jointly put HIA on trial to improve passenger processing solutions. HIA is now part of the SITA club composed of 400 members of the global air transport industry.
Last but not least, 2017 was a ‘green’ year for the airport: HIA was rewarded for its environmental protection strategy, by successfully reaching Level 3 ‘Optimisation’ status in the Airports Council International (ACI) Airport Carbon Accreditation programme.
HIA is also currently preparing the launch of a major new art piece by KAWS in the first quarter of 2018 and is working on new global partnerships to build on HIA’s best-in-class passenger experience.
Hamad International Airport was designed to cater for a projected ongoing increase in the volume of traffic and is proceeding as planned. HIA is currently a candidate for the ‘Best Airport in the World’ award by Skytrax which already classified it as a five-star airport in 2017, making it one among only five other airports in the world to achieve this prestigious status. Earlier this year, it was ranked Sixth Best Airport in the World by the 2017 Skytrax World Airport Awards, moving up four places from 2016.
For more information about HIA, visit their website at dohahamadairport.com.