MoI, other entities ‘trying to cut emigration queues at HIA’

The entities concerned are “trying to resolve the issue” of long queues of passengers at Hamad International Airport’s emigration counters, said Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar al-Baker.  “Staff shortage is the reason for this,” al-Baker said yesterday.“As a team, among the airport, Ministry of Interior and other entities, we are trying to resolve this issue,” al-Baker said. Mostly inbound passengers, currently face significant delays in emigration clearance at the Hamad International Airport. Besides Qatar’s rising population, which now stands close to 2.4mn, the country has seen a steady increase in the number of visitors to the country.According to Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), Qatar hosted nearly 2.93mn visitors in 2015. This shows a 3.7% increase over 2014 and an 11.5% annual average growth between 2010 and 2015.The highest number of visitors was from Saudi Arabia (855,555) followed by India (375,910) and the UK (135,645).Earlier, addressing an event at the Hamad International Airport, al-Baker said: “We designed HIA-Qatar to be the most advanced, most efficient and most comfortable global aviation gateway, and a facility able to handle up to 50mn of our own passengers every year, as well as the millions of fans that will visit Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.” He said the decision to make HIA the official platinum sponsor of the legendary German football club, FC Bayern Munich was to promote Qatar and its institutions.“Our airport and Qatar Airways are very important institutions of my country.”On issues facing Al Maha Airways, a subsidiary of Qatar Airways, which was launched for low-cost operations in Saudi Arabia, al-Baker said: “It could not take off because we had some regulatory hurdles… and we are trying to resolve these.” Al Maha, which means “oryx” in Arabic will sport the Qatar Airways Oryx logo, but it will be in green instead of maroon, to match Saudi Arabia’s national colours.