Qatar Airways leads the aviation industry for Covid-19 hygiene safety and service quality with four 5-star ratings by Skytrax, the international air transport rating organization. Hamad International Airport (HIA) has recently won Airport of the Year 2021, and Qatar Airways is the only airline in the world where both the airline and its airport hub have received the prestigious Skytrax 5-Star rating across four categories—Best Airline Rating, Airline Covid-19 Safety Rating, Best Airport Rating, and Airport Covid-19 Safety Rating. Qatar Airways beats other global carriers and air hubs around the world for Covid-19 safety and premium service quality. Currently, the State of Qatar is open to fully-Covid-19 PCR test done 48 hours prior to their flight.
The Skytrax 5-Star ratings for Covid-19 Safety reinforce Qatar Airways’ and HIA’s position as one of the world’s safest airlines and airports against Covid-19. As the airline that has never stopped flying since the pandemic, Qatar Airways has gone above and beyond in implementing comprehensive hygiene measures to ensure utmost safety for passengers and employees.
A detailed audit was carried out by Skytrax in December 2020 to assess the airline’s Covid-19 hygiene and safety standards from flight check-in to on-board the aircraft. This included a full review of procedural efficiency checks, visual observation of hygiene and safety levels at all stages of the passenger journey, and on-board Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) sampling tests to measure the potential level of contamination of contact surfaces.
Qatar Airways’ aircraft feature the most advanced air filtration system, equipped with industrial-size HEPA filters that remove 99.97 percent of viral and bacterial contaminants from re-circulated air, providing the most effective protection against infection. Qatar Airways is also the first airline to introduce Honeywell Ultraviolet Cabin System in September 2020 for optimal inflight sanitization using cutting-edge technology. To further enhance hygiene by minimizing contact, the airline also rolled out 100 percent touch-free inflight entertainment system in April 2021 across its A350 fleet to safeguard passengers’ health and well-being.
Qatar Airways cabin crew are regularly screened thermally, and equipped with PPE over their uniforms, along with safety glasses, gloves and a mask. Passengers are also provided with facemask and a hygiene kit of disposable gloves and hand sanitizers. Safe-distancing is done whenever possible onboard, and large bottles of hand sanitizers are placed in the galleys and made available for both cabin crew and passengers.
At HIA, innovative solutions have been implemented to maintain the highest levels of hygiene including the use of disinfection robots, advanced thermal temperature screening, and ultraviolet luggage disinfection. All passenger touchpoints are sanitised every 10-15 minutes, while all boarding gates and bus gate counters are cleaned after each flight.
Qatar Airways is also the first middle-eastern carrier to trial the IATA Travel Pass Digital Passport mobile app in March 2021, and organized the world’s first fully-vaccinated flight early April 2021 where the airline’s ground staff, operating crew and passengers were fully-vaccinated. These activities demonstrate Qatar Airways’ capability of implementing hygiene measures of the highest standards, as well as the very high percentage of fully-vaccinated Qatar Airways staff and crew to safeguard public health.