Qatar Airways prepares for Osaka launch with Japanese Cabin Crew Recruitment

In preparation for the launch of Qatar Airways’ newest destination of Osaka, the airline has embarked on a recruitment drive to hire additional Japanese cabin crew.

Qatar Airways has boosted the number of Japanese flight attendants by more than 50 per cent to 35 crew with new recruits having recently joined the airline from across Japan.

The new recruits have embarked on an intensive seven-week cabin crew training course at Qatar Airways’ head office in Doha, before taking to the skies. The airline has also hired the services of Mrs. Masako Hanzawa, a Japanese cabin crew instructor based in Tokyo, to work with Qatar Airways’ crew training department in Doha on educating all flight attendants about Japanese culture and etiquette.

Next month, a team from Qatar Airways’ recruitment department will be heading to Osaka and Tokyo for another round of interviews to hire additional Japanese crew.

Osaka officially becomes Qatar Airways’ 60th destination on its rapidly-growing global route network on 31 March 2005 with the launch of four flights a week between Doha, capital of the State of Qatar, and Japan’s commercial centre.

The airline prides itself on employing male and female crew from around the world with more than 50 different nationalities currently working as flight attendants.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the company was committed to hiring crew from around the world to ensure the highest levels of service to passengers, whether they travel on business or leisure.

“Japan is one of our most important route launches of 2005 and we are very excited to be soon offering our Five Star service to the people of Japan and both business and leisure passengers from around the world travelling on our global network,” he said.

“Our Osaka flights will have Japanese-speaking cabin crew and Japanese cuisine to make the atmosphere onboard feel more like home for many of our passengers.

“Our Japanese crew have fitted well into our multi-cultural airline and we are delighted to be welcoming more trainees from Japan over the next few months.”

The Osaka service marks Qatar Airways’ first foray into the Japanese market and the route is expected to help meet demand from business and leisure travellers between the Middle East and Japan.

The new route will be operated with the modern Airbus A330-200 in a three-class configuration. The First Class cabin has 12 seats that convert to 180-degree flat beds, Business Class offers 18 seats that recline 160 degrees, while Economy features 208 seats.

The Airbus A330-200 features Qatar Airways’ award-winning Audio Video On Demand system, allowing passengers in all three classes to choose from a list of more than 40 international movies, as well as short programmes to view on their individual TV screens.

Passengers can also listen to an extensive list of 250 CDs and 16 audio channels. In addition, there is a choice of 12 video games to play through the interactive TV screens.

As part of its launch into the Japanese market, Qatar Airways will be offering members of its Privilege Club frequent flyer programme with double miles for the first full month of the Osaka service.

Privilege Club members travelling on domestic or international services of Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways will be able to accrue Qmiles for later redemption on flights on the Qatar Airways network and partner airlines.

From April 1, 2005, Qatar Airways will place its QR flight code on ANA-operated domestic flights within Japan, between Osaka Kansai and Tokyo Haneda, Fukuoka and Sapporo, to offer its passengers with connections to and from key Japanese cities.

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