QATAR . Qatar Airways is filing a US$600 million legal claim against German-Emirati joint venture construction company Lindner Depa Interiors (LDI), claiming that LDI caused a delay to the opening of New Doha International Airport (NDIA) by up to a year.
The airline company, which will also run NDIA, claimed in a statement that LDI had undertaken to complete the construction of 19 airport lounges at NDIA by the summer of 2012 in a contract worth over US$250 million but failed to complete the project on time. The airport was due to have opened in December 2012.
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Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, who first broke the news of the delayed opening of New Doha International Airport in a world exclusive interview (pictured) with The Moodie Report Chairman Martin Moodie in August, said today: “We relied on moving to our new home, the New Doha International Airport this month, but this has not happened” |
Qatar Airways said LDI had “badly defaulted”. The delayed airport opening had seriously affected the airline’s expansion plans, “causing huge revenue losses, increased construction costs and delay penalties, and more importantly, inconveniencing passengers”, it added.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker first broke the news of the delayed opening of NDIA in a world exclusive interview with The Moodie Report in August.
The US$15.5 billion state-of-the-art airport, which will have Qatar Airways as its primary customer and operator, is now expected to open in the second half of 2013. “The new facility is destined to be an iconic world-class airport that is expected to set high standards in excellence,” the company said.
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Fast-growing Qatar Airways will be New Doha International Airport’s operator and primary customer |
Qatar Airways is one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, currently operating 116 aircraft to 122 destinations worldwide with plans to fly over 170 aircraft to more than 170 destinations by 2015.
The current Doha International Airport handles almost 20 million passengers a year, with over 80% of the passenger traffic generated by Qatar Airways alone.
Al Baker cited “extreme poor performance” and inability to execute the work within the time required for the project as the reasons for LDI’s contract being terminated, resulting in the legal action.
“We are extremely disappointed by the poor performance of LDI which has failed to carry out the contract in a timely manner which in turn has forced a delay of the opening of the New Doha International Airport by nearly a year,” said Al Baker.
“We have been badly affected as an airline with the delay impacting Qatar Airways’ expansion plans, that include new aircraft deliveries and opening up new routes at the rate we want to, and more importantly causing a lot of inconvenience to our passengers in addition to the revenue losses to the airline and its subsidiaries,” he said.
“Our subsidiaries have been also affected by this delay, including Qatar Duty Free, the food outlets and the ground handling which had a negative impact on the revenues of the airline.”
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Qatar Duty Free, which will run the retail operation at New Doha International Airport, has also been badly affected by the delay. Pictured above and below are renderings of the spectaclular shopping offer that is planned |
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Al Baker added that further claims against LDI were expected from other entities affected by this delay.
Al Baker added: “The current airport we are operating from [Doha International Airport] is already full to capacity with virtually no room to grow. We relied on moving to our new home, the New Doha International Airport this month, but this has not happened. Operational trials of the new airport have been ongoing since the summer as everything was in place, but incomplete airport lounges proved a serious setback.”
Phase One of NDIA is slated to handle over 28 million passengers a year, with the capacity expected to more than double by the time the airport is fully operational in 2018.
