WHEN Qatar Airways Senior Vice President for Aeropolitical and Regulatory Affairs Ali M. Al Rais first came to the Philippines in 1993, the trendy bar Giraffe over at 6750 Ayala Avenue had just opened its doors.
Al Rais recalled that even as Giraffe had closed its doors, the arms and hearts of Filipinos whom he had befriended remain very much open.
He said Qatar Airways started its operations in 1994 as a small regional carrier serving a handful of routes.
The airline was relaunched in 1997 under the mandate of the then-Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who outlined a vision to turn the carrier into a leading international airline with the highest standards of service and excellence.
Constant movement
As one of the carrier’s top executives, Al Rais is equally at home in a dishdasha or a western three-button suit.
He could also be in the Bahamas one day, jettison to Thailand, and then fly to London and South America to look after the welfare of the state-owned flag carrier.
Al Rais said Qatar Airways employs more than 31,000 people, with 19,000 working directly for the airline. He added that 3,000 of them are Filipinos, which represents 15 percent of their work force.
Qatar is a small country in the Persian Gulf but is considered the world’s richest country per capita at $80,000 annually. Its economy depends on the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves in excess of 25 billion barrels. With a population of 2.20 million, more than 80 percent are expatriates.
Qatar will be hosting the 2022 Fifa World Cup, becoming the first Arab country to do so. The country has already allocated $4 billion to fund 12 stadiums, a metro-rail transport system, 41 hotels and more than 100 skyscrapers. By then, Qatar would have employed 1 million more overseas workers.
“So you can imagine how much we contribute to your economy,” Al Rais said.
Al Rais said that the 300,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Doha remits more than $500 million annualy, but he also estimates that 40 percent more are channeled through other sources, including friends and relatives who are going back to the country.
Loving the Philippines
Having stayed in the Philippines, Al Rais is enamored with the beauty of the places he has visited.
“I personally work in the Philippines. I am very attached. I feel personally responsible that this country deserves better in terms of tourism. It is very unfortunate that you have been excluded from the tourism that is happening in Asia. And you have all the right attraction in terms of tourism with your 7, 107 islands,” Al Rais said.
He added that Cebu, Bohol, Aklan, Palawan, if more accessible to tourists, would be great places to visit.
“I am biased in favor of the Philippines. I have also seen what the other parts of the world could offer and you have so many of the natural wonders. You are sitting on a jewel. How long are you going to keep away the people from visiting these places,” Al Rais asked.
He noted that when Thailand’s small island of Ko Samui was opened to tourism, hotel occupancy drastically went up by 70 percent. Many in Qatar, he said, do not know where Ko Samui is five years ago but has since become familiar with it. This is the same lack of awareness Qataris show when asked where Palawan, Boracay or Bohol are.
Al Rais said the Philippines should use its OFWs to promote the country’s tourism industry.
“You have people who literally live in other people’s homes or businesses,” Al Rais said, while adding that these Filipino should invite their employers to visit the country.
More frequencies, more investments
Qatar Airways said it likes to have at least three flights a day out of the Philippines to bring in more tourists from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, along with North and South America.
Presently, Qatar Airways flies out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Clark International Airport seven times a week. The airline has application for 13 more frequencies.
Al Rais said that on May 27 and 28, a top-level Philippine government delegation, along with the Civil Aeronautics Board, will visit Doha to discuss their proposal for more frequencies.
He said that since 2010, their national airline has brought 1.50 million tourists to the country but believes they can do more if given more flights.
Al Rais said the move to increase flight frequency is also based on the Philippines’s robust economic growth.
“As you see, the country has been growing in recent years. You have a lot of developments and you have a lot of Filipinos who live here. We hope and we wish that the Philippine government considers the offer of additional flights so we can serve these people,” Al Rais said.
He added that their national carrier flies out of 150 countries, with Filipino communities present in many of them. However, he said, it normally takes them two days to land in Manila due to lack of direct flights.
He cited as examples Florida and the Bahamas. However, when Qatar Airways established flights to these locations, Filipinos going home had their flights reduced to a single day.
“We fly eight times a day to the US, seven times to London and four times to Bangkok. It is easy access and people go to those places, and that is how business is conducted,” Al Rais said.
Still, Al Rais said Filipino airlines are welcome to fly to Doha.
“They are most welcome. We offer any support they need. We would be more than happy to assist them,” Al Rais said.
He also said their government has offered the Aquino administration $1 billion to be invested in whatever projects the government decides to assist its people.
“It is a fund and depends on what the country want to invest in. It could be infrastructure. It could be anything else. Once you have that money available, then, as a country, you decide where you want to invest them,” Al Rais said, adding, however, that the offer was not yet finalized.
Al Rais said the general strategy of Qatar is to invest and diversify the economy and not to be totally independent on oil and gas.
In 2013 Qatar had invested over $100 billion worldwide, including in The Shard, Barclays Bank, Heathrow Airport, Harrods, Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Volkswagen, Siemens and Royal Dutch Shell.
The airline is headquartered at their own “Tower” in Doha, where they operate a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 150 international destinations across Africa, Central Asia, Europe, the Far East, South Asia, the Middle East, North America, South America and Oceania.
Their base of operation is the Hamad International Airport, where they have a fleet of more than 340 aircraft, including B777, B787, A380 and A350.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano