British Airways boss Sean Doyle pledged on Friday to rebuild relations with customers and staff and restore the airline’s reputation for premium service as the industry recovers from the pandemic. Doyle, who spent the first 15 months in charge in near-permanent crisis management, unveiled his strategy to emerge from the pandemic and aviation’s worst crisis in an address to 30,000 staff via video link. One of his priorities will be to restore the airline’s brand as a premium offering, which will give passengers a better service than its “no-frills” rivals such as Ryanair and easyJet, while keeping costs down. “There is room for optimism that we are on the way out” of the pandemic, and that the airline needed to “redefine” its place in the airline world, including a heavy emphasis on service and the passenger experience.b“Putting the premium proposition into the heart of what we do is going to be key,” he told the Financial Times at BA’s headquarters near Heathrow. “We want people to come off a British Airways flight and talk about it as if it’s something different.” The strategy represents the Irish executive’s first move to stamp his mark on BA and indicates he will not focus on wholesale changes. Instead, he will prioritise rebuilding the airline’s brand as a premium service in an effort to make it once again the main driver of profits for its Spanish parent International Airlines Group, IAG. But it is a challenge successive BA bosses struggled to meet because of conflicting pressures of trying to compete with low-cost carriers in economy class, while maintaining standards for business and first class passengers. The challenge is arguably greater for Doyle than his predecessors as BA emerges from a pandemic that culminated in lay-offs criticised as “a national disgrace” by MPs. It was in effect the final act of a chaotic period that included IT failures, a data breach and its first pilots’ strike.<br/>
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Boeing has confirmed it is offering a freighter version of the B777X widebody to the market. Qatar Airways is likely to become its launch customer with an announcement said to be imminent. "We are currently offering the freighter version of our B777X airplane to customers. And we'll keep you updated as we progress on sales campaigns and conclude our launch timing evaluation," Boeing's CFO Brian West said during the manufacturer's quarterly earnings call on January 26, 2022. Reuters reported that talks between Boeing and Qatar Airways were very advanced. The carrier could order up to fifty B777X freighters, although a portion of this number is likely to come as options rather than firm commitments. Sources said the deal was expected to be signed during the visit of Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Washington on January 31. Qatar Airways currently operates twenty-six B777-200Fs, just five years old on average, but is looking to replace them with newer aircraft. While until recently, the carrier was evaluating both the A350F and the B777X(F), the recent breakdown in relations with the European manufacturer has left Boeing as the only contender. The airline has been eyeing the B777X freighters since 2019. Amidst the row with Airbus, Qatar Airways recently launched direct services to Seattle Tacoma Int'l and touted the destination as "home to our partner Boeing", to which the airline is "grateful for their continued support in the region and globally".<br/>
Qantas has announced the official opening of its newest Flight Training Centre in Brisbane, and will soon begin training up to 900 pilots per year across the centre’s four state-of-the-art simulators. Qantas announced in February 2021 that it would build the new centre, with support from the Queensland Government, marking its third facility on the east coast. The Brisbane centre will house Boeing 787, 767 and 737 simulators, as well as Dash 8 Q400 simulators, which have been relocated from its temporarily-decommissioned Sydney training facility. The Sydney training centre is set to be knocked down to make way for a major roads project, however is planned to return to operations in 2023. Qantas said its new Brisbane facility will provide recurring training for its over 500 Queensland-based pilots, saving costs on transport and accommodation, as well as pilots from interstate.<br/>