Qatar Airways sets up new company to handle Hamad airport

The Qatar Airways Group is setting up a new company to manage and operate its Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Doha, as an independent entity, it announced on Sunday.

The decision was taken by the group’s executive board in its meeting on January 31, a statement said.

No details were revealed about who would head the new company.

Hamad International Airport – Qatar Airways’ hub – opened in 2014 and currently serves 30 million passengers a year.

It can handle 100 aircraft movements per hour on its dual-runways.

Services and facilities at HIA include Qatar Duty Free, which has over 40,000 square metres of retail and dining with 70 boutiques and 30 cafés and restaurants.

It also has an airside hotel, two airside squash courts, a gym and a 25-metre swimming pool and spa.

The airport has one of the largest free span maintenance hangars in the world, a two-storey cargo facility, and a self-contained catering facility.

Further expansion plans for the airport have also been announced.

Last month, Akbar Al Baker, group chief executive of the Qatar Airways Group, said a new Concourse F is expected to be added to the existing terminal, swelling capacity to 65 million passengers annually.

“The terminal was designed for expansion as we grow the airline and this is what we will do,” he said, adding that it had recently received an application from two more Indian carriers.

He said the expansion will be put out to public tender “to internationally contracted parties”. Foster + Partners is handling the designs.

Read more: Qatar’s Hamad International Airport to build Concourse F