Airlines
Qatar Airways vs. Singapore Airlines: Who’s the Best in the Business-Class Business?
On most global airline rankings, a few elite airlines reign supreme. In recent years, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines have duked it out for the top spot. That pair of long-haul carriers are on top of their game, especially in premium cabins where they can dial the experience up to the max.
I’ve enjoyed writing occasional airline comparison stories like Air France vs KLM (2020) and a battle royale between five Star Alliance carriers (2018). This past year I was fortunate to fly long haul itineraries on both Qatar and Singapore. And to follow up the individual stories on each experience (Singapore JFK-SIN, Qatar JFK-DOH) it felt right to pit these two heavyweights against each other.
In this story I compare Singapore and Qatar on the basis of seats, service, food, drink, entertainment, amenities, and the ground experience at their respective hubs. And at the end, I do my best to crown a champion. That last task was tough, because it ended up being a VERY close fight.
Whether you’re a seasoned road warrior, an aspirational fancy flyer, or you just like pictures of pretty planes, you’ll enjoy this story. So click / scroll below and read on!
Rules for a fair fight
Before launching into the heart of the story, a few ground rules and disclaimers. First, I’m not pretending to be a super-frequent flyer on these airlines. (Side note: if you know how I can become that kind of person, please let me know). But I did fly multiple long-haul routes on each airline — enough to make a meaningful comparison.
For the sake of a fair comparison, wherever possible I focused on the longest-haul flight I took on each airline. In Qatar’s case it was a 777-300ER Qsuite flight from New York to Doha, clocking in at 12 hours. And for Singapore, it was actually the world’s longest flight: 19 hours on an A350-900ULR from New York JFK to Changi International.
Another caveat: these are two massive airlines that each offer a variety of onboard products, plane types, and destinations. What I experienced on my flights may not apply to your experience flying the same airlines. And it goes without saying that this sort of comparison is highly subjective. I’d honestly love to hear all the ways you may disagree with me (the comments section awaits!).
Finally, I recognize that stories nitpicking and judging premium cabin flying can seem obnoxious. Feel free to roll your eyes and skip this story if it’s not your sort of thing. That said, I think we AvGeeks are extra appreciative of the incredible experiences airlines manage to deliver within the confines of a pressurized tube miles above the ground. Flying in such style is like watching a seasoned orchestra perform. It never ceases to amaze.
Ok, without further ado, it’s time for the battle to begin!
The seat
Qatar’s reputation leans heavily on its long-haul Qsuite business class design. As a fully enclosed seat with a door, the product offers plenty of room and privacy.
The cabin finishes are tastefully done, with lots of subdued browns/greys and burgundy accents. Even eight years after its initial rollout, this seat design still holds its own against the best of ’em.
The seat goes fully flat and is comfortable as a bed.
Qsuite boasts the ability for certain clusters of four seats to open up and become a shared “quad.” I’m not sure how often people take advantage of that, but it at least represents some creative design thinking.
There are just a few Qsuite downsides. Thanks to high walls, the doors, and Qatar’s decision to keep overhead bins in the center section, Qsuite may strike you as more confined. Also, half of the cabin’s seats face rearward. There’s a novelty factor in facing the tail while flying, but once the novelty wears off you may find that you’re not a fan.
In our other corner, Singapore Airlines hasn’t (yet) adopted suite-style seats, but it’s product is roomy, luxurious, and has a proven track record.
Singapore offers a similar style of seat across much of its long-haul fleet — generally in a 1-2-1-across configuration. The product looked especially nice on the A350-900ULR I flew on.
The seatback itself measures an impressive 28 inches wide — significantly wider than Qsuite’s.
One odd thing about the seat is that you can’t convert it to fully-flat mode yourself. The entire seat flips forward to open up the bed, a process that requires a flight attendant’s involvement. That design allows the airline to optimize the seat surfaces for each phase of flight, with a soft bed surface and firmer upright seat surface. But that benefit comes at the expense of your ability to independently switch between the two modes.
The winner: Qatar
It’s a close call, but Qsuite is just too good. Suites with doors have become a mainstay of the business class seat elite. And in addition to their doors, Qatar’s seats excel across the board in layout, decor, and functionality.
As great as Singapore’s seats are, there’s no getting around the fact that they’re much more exposed.
Last year Singapore hinted that it’s working on a next-gen business class seat with doors, so the seat design category is going to be even more competitive in the future.
Dining
Switching over from hard product to soft product, food is one of the main ways an airline can make or break your premium cabin inflight experience. And both of our competing airlines do a stellar job with dining overall. They both serve food directly onto your table, instead of bringing over trays or serving off a cart.
Qatar offers a fully on-demand dining structure, meaning you aren’t constrained by predetermined mealtimes. The flexibility is great, though in practice most people end up eating an after-takeoff meal just like you would on other airlines. You can also pre-select your preferred entree option online in advance.
Qatar’s meal service is ambitious, in terms of both the dine-on-demand model and the menu of dishes on offer. In reality, at least based on my personal experiences, the execution can be hit-or-miss. For example, the lobster I got after takeoff was plated beautifully but was overcooked to the point of being hard as a rock.
But then my second meal later in the flight was absolute perfection, in both presentation and taste.
Qatar made waves last year when it started rolling out caviar service on many of its long-haul departures from Doha. It’s an impressive feature for business class, since you more commonly see caviar as a first class perk.
I’m not going to pretend to be a caviar connoisseur, but it sure was fun to try.
On Singapore’s side, they serve up some amazing in-flight cuisine as well. They’re well known for their Book the Cook service that allows you to pre-select entrees from an expanded list of options. The selection is broadest if you’re on a flight departing Singapore, but departures from many other destinations have access to some additional Book the Cook meal options as well.
Even premium economy passengers can book the cook — I pre-reserved the very tasty meal below on a long-haul premium economy flight.
But back to biz class: Singapore runs cool catering partnerships like this salad supplied by the innovative indoor vertical farming company AeroFarms.
And then later in the flight I tried Moroccan grilled lamb chops that were a collaboration with California’s Golden Door spa and wellness retreat.
The airline serves up pretty great cheese and dessert options too.
Singapore doesn’t offer a fully on-demand dining model, though there is some flexibility. At our flight’s halfway point, the crew turned on the cabin lights for a second meal. But for anyone who kept sleeping, there were still hearty food options available throughout the second half of the flight.
One strange menu design choice on our 19-hour Singapore flight was the lack of a real breakfast dish.
Winner: It’s a tie
I really wanted to avoid ties in this story, but this category felt like it had to be a draw.
Qatar’s fully on-demand meal service and caviar service are incredible. But the occasional misfires on execution dragged the experience down a bit.
Singapore didn’t have as much wow factor with any individual dish, and its service style isn’t as flexible as Qatar’s dine-on-demand model. But Singapore’s execution was more consistent, and Book the Cook provides an impressive variety of choices.
Even drawing in data points from my other flights with both airlines, I really couldn’t fairly name a winner either way. We’ll call it a tasty tie, and move on to the next category.
Drinks
Why do drinks get their own category? For one, a wine list is a concrete way to quantify an airline’s investment in its onboard experience. Also, many airlines get creative with their beverage offerings, showcasing unique flavors from their home countries.
Traditionally champagne is the highest-profile prestige item on the menu. Singapore was serving 2018 Piper-Heidsieck when I flew them. That’s an impressive choice even compared with what’s offered on the world’s other best business classes.
The cocktail list features a hometown favorite, the Singapore Sling. The airline’s version is on the sweeter side, but tasty.
Singapore also gets kudos for a thoughtful mocktail list. There’s a growing sober-curious movement out there. And even for people who drink, there’s a strong case to be made for avoiding alcohol during flights (less dehydration, improved sleep). So it’s nice to see the airline providing some thoughtful non-alcoholic options.
Singapore also stands out for a possibly best-in-class tea menu.
It also offers up multiple choices of Illy drip coffee.
Switching over to Qatar, the airline also offers a competitive drink menu.
The Billecart-Salmon champagne it served was impressive, though maybe a half-step less elite than what Singapore was pouring. To its credit, Qatar’s menu had a separate rosé champagne option.
Qatar offers a competitive cocktail list and an impressive list of mocktails and other non-alcoholic options.
The Winner: Singapore
Raise a glass to Singapore Airlines, because it’s the winner here. It has a slightly better headline champagne, a bit more local flavor to its cocktail list, and also impresses with its diverse coffee and tea selection.
Amenities
Time to talk creature comforts. Along with a packaged towel, Qatar leaves an amenity kit at each seat. Since 2022 its kits are from French luxury brand Diptyque.
The kits cover the basics and then some. In terms of quality, my wife (who’s better qualified to comment) loved the lotion and fragrance.
Singapore Airlines does amenities differently. For a while they didn’t offer amenity kits at all, though in 2020 they began offering basic kits and last year switched to Le Labo as the supplier. The contents are high-quality but more limited in the number of items as compared with Qatar.
It’s not that Singapore is stingy, but rather that it does things differently. Instead of a fuller amenity kit, Singapore opts to keep the lavatories well stocked with toiletries like combs, shaving supplies, and dental kits that you can take as needed.
Winner: Qatar
First, I have to recognize that Singapore’s help-yourself strategy is less wasteful than standard amenity kits are. Eco-conscious flyers may prefer Singapore’s approach.
But I think many passengers expect that if you’re investing in a premium cabin flight you get a real kit, and in that regard Qatar satisfies expectations better.
Crewmember service
Tangible items like food, drink, and amenities are important. But service is the glue that holds the inflight experience together. Both airlines’ flight attendant crews generally operate at a high level, though there will always be some person-to-person variability.
On Qatar there were a few instances when crewmembers were trying their best but were showing some strain. To be fair, the dine-on-demand model puts a ton of pressure on them. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to deliver a meal like the one below I had on the A350 flight from Cape Town to Doha, and to do it for a cabin full of passengers eating at different times.
Anyone who has flown Singapore Airlines knows that their flight attendants are the most polished in the business, handling even the busiest moments of flights without breaking a sweat. The dinner I had on an A380 flight from Melbourne to Singapore (below) was possibly the most smoothly executed inflight meal I’ve ever had.
Winner: Singapore
On either airline you’re getting treated very well. But there was a bit more consistency to our Singapore crews overall, and they were especially good at making hard work look easy. You go, [Singapore] girl.
Inflight entertainment
On a long-haul flight, an airline’s inflight entertainment system has a huge impact on your overall experience.
On their ultra-long-range A350s, Singapore’s business class seats include a massive screen. The airline features one of the broadest menus of movies and TV out there.
Strangely, the display isn’t a touch screen. I kept tapping the screen before remembering to use the remote instead. But you can also connect your smartphone to the system via bluetooth and use it as your remote, which worked well for me.
Especially since it was the world’s longest flight I used the moving map a lot. And Singapore’s was excellent. Zooming out to the view below really put in perspective how insanely long SQ23’s route is.
Singapore’s noise cancelling headphones are pretty good.
Qatar’s entertainment system on Qsuite also uses a large high-res screen. And its content library is MASSIVE.
Qsuite passengers also get noise-cancelling headphones.
One area where Qatar let me down was the inflight map. The system felt at least a decade out of date and didn’t offer much passenger control.
Winner: Singapore
This win was an especially close call. Singapore’s library of content seemed to offer more complete seasons, though Qatar’s was slightly larger. The screens and interfaces are both pretty good.
For me, Singapore’s free WiFi and better flight tracker map earned it the win, though in fairness some of Qatar’s newer aircraft offer a better map system than their 777s do.
Singapore’s win in the entertainment + connectivity category may be short lived, since Qatar is installing lightning-fast and free StarLink WiFi across the fleet.
The ground experience
Though Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways are happy to have you visit their home countries, the airlines primarily focus on long-haul connecting itineraries where you never leave the airport. That makes the ground experience at those hubs a major factor in your overall passenger experience. So the last round of our battle pits their home airports head to head.
Doha’s Hamad International Airport consists of one massive terminal building. A walk from curbside to the farthest extent of the terminal extends exactly one mile. The current terminal opened barely ten years ago and it still feels fresh and new. It’s full of everything you’d expect out of a Middle Eastern mega hub: high-end shopping, multiple lounges, and some impressive art pieces. Whether you count the multimillion dollar Lamp Bear in the “impressive” category is a matter of personal taste. I never knew the line between creepy and cute could get so blurry… but I’ll admit the big bear grew on me.
This story is a business class battle, and so the airlines’ lounges factor heavily in the ground category. Qatar’s Al Mourjan business class lounges are considered among the best in the business. The decor is sleek, modern, and overall stunning at both the original South lounge and the newer Garden lounge.
There are multiple self-serve food stations at each lounge.
The South lounge also offers restaurant-style à la carte dining. You may need to wait a bit for a table here during peak times, but the food is excellent.
In terms of services and amenities the Al Mourjan lounges are top notch. There are plenty of shower suites if you need a mid-trip refresh.
Both lounges also offer nap rooms, though the demand far outmatches the supply. Between three passes through Doha I only managed to get a nap room once, but I’ll admit the wait was worth it.
Over in Singapore, Changi International is about as strong a challenger to Hamad International as you can find. It’s a perennial favorite on global airport rankings. It handles a greater number of passengers, and is segmented into more distinct terminals compared with Hamad’s single mega-terminal.
At the airport’s center is the Changi Jewel — a six-year-old $1.7 billion retail and entertainment complex with the world’s tallest indoor waterfall at its center.
While no other part of the airport can beat the Jewel, there are multiple other features that make Changi the wonderland of the airport world. There’s a butterfly garden, indoor climbing wall, and intricate play spaces, among a zillion other features.
As you’d expect, Singapore Airlines offers a pretty great lounge experience for its premium cabin passengers. It has multiple lounges across the airport’s terminals, with plenty of seating and tasty self-serve food options.
We found a nice nap area at one of the lounges, though space was first-come first-serve and hard to snag during peak times.
As you can imagine, every part of Changi Airport is kept spotlessly clear, Singapore-style.
Winner: Qatar
First, I have to acknowledge that Changi is my personal favorite airport in the world. For AvGeeks, SIN might as well be an amusement park. Why, then, do I give Qatar the win?
For premium cabin passengers, the experience at Doha feels a little more luxe. The main terminal is newer and airier. And Qatar’s Al Mourjan lounges beat Singapore’s flagship business class lounges hands down, in terms of design, dining, and amenities.
By comparison, as fun as Changi is, it’s an older facility. Many parts of the airport feel less spacious. And the design choice of placing security checkpoints at each gate instead of a central facility can be annoying.
Changi’s Jewel is absolutely stunning, but notably it’s landside (AKA pre-security) and therefore harder to visit during a layover. By comparison, Doha’s “Orchard” (in the photo below) is airside and accessible to all transiting travelers.
If I was traveling in economy I’d pick Changi for all the fun publicly-accessible features that can make even a lengthy layover fly by. But in this business class battle, Doha is the winning hub.
Crowning a champion
If you’ve made it this far, you can appreciate how impressive both of these airlines are. Picking a winner wasn’t easy.
Based on the entirety of my experiences on each airline over the past year, Qatar Airways earns the overall win. Thanks to its strong Qsuite seat, its ambitious inflight dining menus, and amazing home airport, it deserves to come out on top.
But there are two major caveats here. First: even if you agreed with my verdicts in each category of the competition, you might pick a different overall winner depending on how important each category is for you. After all, there were some areas like cabin service or beverage selection where Singapore was the better player. And if one of those areas matter most to you, then I couldn’t fault you for siding with Singapore.
Secondly, it’s important to point out that Singapore has plans to address most of the areas where Qatar currently beats it. Just this year the airline teased some partial images of a new suite-style business class seat (with privacy doors) that it will start installing on its A350 long-haul fleet next year.
Changi Airport is also starting work on a MASSIVE terminal 5 that looks incredible, though we’ll have to wait until the next decade to see the finished product.
In the end, any airline’s win in the rankings is only a temporary one. And that’s a good thing! As long as airlines continue fiercely competing, we as passengers end up as the real winners.
And now for my favorite part of the story: where you get to share your take on this comparison. Feel free to disagree with me — honestly it’s more fun that way! Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
STARLUX Airlines added Seattle as its third North American destination on Aug. 16, 2024, following Los Angeles and San Francisco, which saw service starts in 2023.
The fledgling Taiwan-based airline was launched in 2018, with its first services from Taipei to Macau, Penang, and Da Nang having started in 2020. The carrier positions itself as a luxury airline, with four service classes on each of its 23 aircraft. STARLUX’s Airbus 350-900s feature 306 seats, spread across four cabins: four first-class suites, 26 business-class pods, 36 premium economy recliners, and 240 economy seats.
The airline also serves 23 Asian destinations via its all-Airbus fleet of A321neo, A330neo, and A350 aircraft.
Alaska Airlines signed a strategic partnership with STARLUX in 2023, allowing each airline’s loyalty program members to earn points on one another’s flights. The partnership will allow customers of both airlines to book connecting flights on a single ticket.
The current flight schedule calls for three flights a week, with plans in place to increase the frequency to daily service in early 2025.
It’s always an absolute joy to get rampside access for the arrival of a big jet.
With this new route, SEA now hosts 53 nonstop international services on 27 different airlines. We’re hoping to provide you with more STARLUX coverage in the future.
Airlines
OPINION: Stop Comparing Boeing Starliner Astronauts to Airline Passengers Stranded on Holiday
A misconception has been circulating in news and on social media for weeks that the NASA astronauts who flew the Boeing Starliner -named Calypso- to the International Space Station are “stranded in space”. It’s easy to make comparisons with airline passengers stranded mid-itinerary in unfamiliar airport terminals.
But it’s wrong.
1. Not Like Airline Passengers
This situation is not like passengers of a canceled airline flight. The astronauts aren’t stranded.
The question was which way they’re returning home. They participated in the analysis of the vehicle. We now know NASA has decided to fly the Starliner back empty. The two astronauts will return on SpaceX CrewDragon. Contrast with an airline passenger sitting helpless in an unfamiliar airport, the Starliner astronauts are highly trained and a part of the operation. It’s more like an airline pilot waiting for rescheduling at a “crash pad” in a familiar location. Or maybe like airplane manufacturer test pilots waiting with an aircraft at remote airport, maintaining the aircraft until a repair crew arrives. Since this flight is the first flight of a new spacecraft, the crew are test pilot astronauts. They have a full understanding of Starliner’s systems. The test pilots operate spacecraft systems as requested from the ground. The expectation was any problems which would come up, they’d work with engineers on the ground to solve. Except the multiple thruster malfunction was really unexpected.
2. Among NASA’s most experienced
The Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) astronauts are Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams. They have some surprisingly similar backgrounds. Before selection as astronauts, both were US Navy test pilot instructors; Wilmore in fixed-wing jets and Williams in helicopters. Both served long-duration ISS missions of at least six months before. Both had served turns as ISS commander before being assigned to Starliner CFT. Each are currently on their third space flight.
They differ in space flights. Wilmore’s first space flight was as second-in-command pilot on STS-129 Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2009. His second launch was on a Russian Soyuz (during NASA’s gap between Space Shuttle and Commercial Crew) for a 5 1⁄2 month mission to ISS in 2014, returning in 2015.
Williams’ first and second space flights were long-duration ISS missions. On her first, she was launched on STS-116 Space Shuttle Discovery in 2006 and returned to Earth six months later on STS-117 Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2007. So she had already flown up to ISS and back on different spacecraft before. Her second launch was on a Russian Soyuz for six months in 2012. Wilmore and Williams were assigned to the Starliner CFT crew in 2020. Due to delays in Boeing’s Starliner development, they’ve been training for this mission for four years. That training included working with NASA and Boeing engineers on technical details of Starliner, developing procedures and planning training for future astronauts. Astronaut pilot training includes practicing every expected emergency scenario in simulators.
All that work can win feathers in their caps. Test pilots on first flights of new spacecraft have so far all been inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame after completion of their mission.
3. In flight: days, weeks, months…
After years of delays, the Starliner Crew Flight Test launched June 5, 2024. Wilmore and Williams named their spacecraft “Calypso” after Jacques Cousteau’s exploration ship. The mission was planned to dock with ISS for days and return for landing at any of several bases in the southwestern US depending on weather.
The job of any test pilot is to find how the craft differs in flight from design expectations. They help identify problems and collect data for engineers on the ground to fix. The failure of multiple thruster rockets during approach to ISS was a surprise. Testing by Boeing on the ground replicated part of the problem. But subcontractor Aerojet Rocketdyne had not seen the problem before. Further study indicates thrusters too close together may have overheated each other. In the meantime, Wilmore and Williams are not stranded with nothing to do. Remember, each of them has served months-long stays on ISS before. Each has had a turn as ISS commander. There’s a lot of work to maintain the station hardware and conduct science experiments located in many racks around the station. They know their way around to work as part of the crew on the station workload.
4. Lessons from the 2003 Columbia disaster
NASA mission managers had their turn in the spotlight. Their inaction was found by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report to be a factor in the February 1, 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident. They missed seven opportunities to check if Columbia had been damaged when ice falling off a tank struck the left wing on launch. If they had checked, they would have needed to find ways to mitigate the problem or launch another shuttle for rescue. But they never checked. Columbia was in fact damaged by the debris strike. As grim as that lesson was, some good came from learning. With weeks of troubleshooting by engineers and the astronauts, doubts remained whether Starliner’s thrusters will be reliable enough to keep the crew safe for re-entry. The decision was to use the alternative Commercial Crew vehicle, SpaceX’s CrewDragon, to rescue the Starliner crew. This is exactly why NASA wanted two crew launch vendors.
The comparison to risks in the 2003 Columbia disaster brings back memories for me. I was an eyewitness to the smoke trail Columbia made in the pre-dawn sky over northern California. A dozen of us met near the top of Mount Hamilton near San Jose, where we all drove to get a view above the coastal fog. Some of us who had seen previous re-entries knew it should look like a red light, like a highway flare, followed by a clear meteor streak. Instead we saw a red-white light and a billowing cloud behind it. We didn’t know why. The realization of what it meant soon sank in with news Columbia didn’t arrive in Florida and was missing. As a glider, it could not have still been in flight past the landing time. It had to be down somewhere. We later learned the burning left wing broke off over Fort Worth, Texas causing in-flight breakup of the orbiter across east Texas. It was still in the peak-heating phase of re-entry. Most people saw the news after that was known.
When eyewitnesses met again later, we found out that making an effort to go see the re-entry affected us very differently than people who learned about it from the news. Though none of us knew the seven astronauts who died, we all experienced an involuntary mourning reaction as if we did. Talking with other eyewitnesses who had similar experiences was the only way to find support when no one else around us understood. None of us wants to see that again. Today with Boeing’s Starliner delays, NASA still has only one launch vendor currently operating. There’s no backup in case something grounds SpaceX. And at the time of this writing in late August 2024, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has been temporarily grounded by the FAA after a first stage booster crashed (fell over on touchdown) on a landing pad ship at sea. But that’s expected to be a relatively short grounding. SpaceX has flown hundreds of FAA-licensed space launches. Another Falcon 9 grounding in July 2024 lasted only two weeks after a second stage rocket failure that followed over 300 successful launches. SpaceX reported what caused the problem and what corrective action was planned. It was accepted by the FAA, allowing launches to resume. The loss of a Falcon 9 booster on its 23rd landing may affect the Crew-9 launch schedule. But it isn’t expected to result in a long grounding.
5. NASA decided Starliner will fly home empty
Given the history, it isn’t hard to see why NASA decided to bring Starliner back empty. The military test pilots might have chosen to accept the risk. (They can speak for themselves, but might not until after they retire from NASA.) There were enough unknown risks remaining that NASA decided for them. Wilmore and Williams will configure Starliner’s systems and software for automated uncrewed return.
The next big question is whether the thrusters will work on re-entry. The spacecraft needs to be able to point its heat shield side down before re-entry where it will protect the spacecraft from the hot plasma stream. There is redundancy in the thrusters to tolerate some failures. If enough of them fail together, the risk is that it might not have control authority to maintain the correct flight attitude on re-entry. If that happens, it would burn and break up on re-entry.
6. Astronauts to return on SpaceX CrewDragon
There is a CrewDragon already docked at ISS. But its four seats are taken by the astronauts of Crew-8. Trying to bring two more astronauts down without seats or compatible entry suits would be an option only for dire emergency. The CrewDragon for Crew-9 will launch with two crew instead of four, leaving two empty seats and suits for Wilmore and Williams. Upon Crew-9‘s arrival at ISS, they’ll be part of Crew-9 for that six-month crew rotation.
7. How bad is this for Boeing’s reputation?
It’s obviously bad. It’s probably recoverable. It doesn’t help following so soon after the Boeing 737 MAX door plug that blew out over Portland, Oregon on January 5. The renewed crisis that followed led to public ridicule, regulatory scrutiny, Congressional hearings, and ousting the CEO. Ouch.
Whether Starliner makes it back intact will determine how history records this event. If Calypso makes it back, then repairs and recovery can proceed. If not, then the investigations, reviews, and redesign may consume all the time left for Boeing to get its six crew launch contracts before ISS is retired in 2030. This isn’t the end of Boeing in space. At least not yet. Boeing is NASA’s prime contractor for ISS until 2030. They make the core stage of NASA’s SLS rocket. They built a third of the current US GPS satellites, but none of the newer ones. Without new projects, their footprint in space is shrinking. So the outcome of Starliner can influence their reputation in space up or down.
8. NASA wants commercial launch vendors to succeed
In the Space Shuttle era, NASA’s crew and cargo launch capability were grounded for years after each of the 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia accidents. So when the Commercial Crew and Cargo programs started, NASA wanted multiple launch vendors to take over if either are grounded. NASA expanded commercial cargo to include an upcoming third vendor Sierra Nevada after both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences (now part of Northrop Grumman) were grounded at the same time.
NASA showed SpaceX patience to re-engineer its Falcon 9 second stage after the 2014 explosion of the CRS-7 cargo launch. NASA wants two successful crew launch vendors so it has a backup when either is grounded. SpaceX gained a lot of operational experience from flying cargo to ISS before crew. Boeing is having those learning experiences on the crew vehicle at least partly because they didn’t bid for the cargo contracts. A lesson for NASA in the future is to require new crew launch vendors to do cargo first.
9. What to Watch
How will Starliner Calypso fare on automated re-entry? That’s the big question. There is confidence for SpaceX CrewDragon to return the Starliner crew safely. SpaceX’s CrewDragon fleet has flown reliably with lessons learned from the early Falcon 9 rockets and CargoDragon spacecraft. A worst case scenario would be a mishap grounding SpaceX for an extended time before Boeing is ready to be a backup at the time. The system can only tolerate one vendor grounded at a time. Currently SpaceX is picking up all the slack in NASA’s system. ISS is currently planned to be operated until 2030. As the station ages, extensions would likely be short and decreasingly likely. But NASA has pointed to a possible extension of ISS if commercial space stations aren’t ready to replace it by then. There are few remaining opportunities for Boeing to get crew launch contracts for Starliner. Its chances are best if Starliner Calypso returns intact. Boeing is initially focusing on NASA. It doesn’t yet have other customers for Starliner crew flights. In contrast, SpaceX has flown multiple civilian space flights. NASA’s intent to use fixed-price Commercial Crew and Cargo launch contracts to help build American space industry capability is working.
Don’t be too quick to believe pundits who dismiss Boeing during this difficulty. Such decisions have not been made yet at NASA. NASA wants multiple launch vendors. Boeing’s reputation depends on how they execute plans to recover both airliners and spacecraft.
Guest post, from Ian Kluft – Portland, Oregon
Ian has had enthusiasm for aviation, space and technology since grade school. Educated as a software engineer, he also got his Private Pilot license while attending university. Later upgrading to a Certified Flight Instructor added to his ability to share the interest in flight with others. For interests in space, he has traveled to see rocket launches and solar eclipses. So far the pinnacle of space interests was leading Ham Radio-licensed search teams which recovered the first amateur rocket launched to space, in Nevada in 2004. More info is at https://ikluft.github.io/ . He splits his social media accounts by topic: aviation as @ik****@****ek.social on Mastodon (minimally also @ikluft on Twitter); space as @As*******@****ey.space on Mastodon (minimally also @AstroHawk on Twitter).
As a US-based flyer, when I think of the big Middle Eastern airlines I think of epic long-haul flights on 777s, A380s, and other big planes. But can those airlines deliver a great experience on smaller single-aisle aircraft?
We got to find out on an A320 flight from Doha to Zanzibar on Qatar Airways, Skytrax’s best airline in the world for 2024. Over the course of the six-hour flight we got a close look at the airline’s narrowbody business class seat and “medium-haul” service style.
So what should you expect onboard a Qatar A320 compared with their 777s, 787s, A350s, or A380s? Read on to find out. And as usual we have some window seat views for you to enjoy along the way.
Premium cabin passengers get access to a dedicated check-in area and security checkpoint.
We had to take a moment to appreciate the famous lampshade bear sculpture. Is it cool? Is it weird? Is it both? You be the judge.
There’s a ton of good food and useful amenities at the airline’s Al Mourjan lounges. We’ll have a separate story about Qatar’s lounges and the ground experience at their Doha mega-hub.
Even though the terminal at Hamad International is huge, Qatar Airways has grown so much in recent years that a lot of the airline’s operations are at remote stands instead of jetways. That does add a bit of hassle. But from an AvGeek perspective it means great views of the action on the ramp:
Meet the Seat
We rolled up to the Airbus A320 that would be taking us on our six-hour journey to Zanzibar.
Qatar has two different business class seat configurations on their A320 fleet. One has recliner seats like you’d find on most airlines’ A320 or 737 business classes. But the other configuration, designed for longer flights like ours, features twelve lie-flat seats up front.
The Collins Diamond seat design has two seats per row on each side of the aisle. It’s a nicer seat design if you’re traveling as a pair, since otherwise there isn’t much privacy from your neighbor.
Overall it’s a great seat for an A320 business class cabin. Not quite as good as some other single-aisle business class seats that offer unobstructed aisle access for every seat, like JetBlue Mint for example. But still well above average.
Service got started with a hello from the flight attendant, a pre-departure drink in real glassware, and an intro to the airline’s dine-on-demand service. If you’re flying Qatar business remember to look at the menu early since they take your full meal and drink order before takeoff.
Even at night it’s easy to appreciate the amazing scale of Doha’s Hamad International Airport. Check out the view as we took off:
As the Doha city lights faded behind us the double-chimes went off and the flight attendants kicked into high gear.
Starting the service
We were invited to have meals at any time and any order, as is the usual for Qatar flights. Here’s a look at the menu for the flight:
And here’s a look at the drink list:
Pasta can be boring as an inflight meal. This dish wasn’t. It tasted great and I appreciated the fresh vegetables.
A quick dessert rounded out the meal.
Our flight attendant crew was amazing. Still, we could tell that the labor-intensive dine-on-demand service style had them working on overdrive.
Settling in for the long(ish)-haul
Inflight entertainment systems vary across Qatar’s fleet. On this A320 the screen was large, and the library of movies and TV was plenty for this flight though not as expansive as Emirates’ system, for example. The inflight map design took me back to the 2000s.
These seats go fully flat when you’re ready to sleep.
It was a soft and comfortable bed, and the airline’s bedding is excellent. I got a few hours of quality sleep before waking up in time for a pre-landing view and breakfast.
Just like dinner, breakfast was plated beautifully.
For a breakfast at the end of a medium-haul flight this felt way above average.
The views on descent into Zanzibar were beautiful:
The verdict
All in all, this was a comfy ride for a medium-haul narrowbody flight. Sure, all else being equal its a nicer ride on Qatar’s longer-haul widebodies. Especially if you’re flying solo, since the A320 seat doesn’t offer the same universal direct aisle access or privacy that Qsuite and Qatar’s other widebody business class seats do. But you still get the benefits of a comfortable lie-flat seat with nice finishes. In the end it’s a good enough platform to allow the airline’s service to shine and to land well rested.
Just remember that part of the airline’s A320 fleet has standard recliner-type seats. So you’ll want to pay attention to the seat map when you book.
We’ll be back with more stories about our time flying Qatar Airways, including a long-haul experience with their QSuites seat. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Comments are closed here.
-
Sport2 years agoHow to Play American Football for Beginners
-
Commercial Aviation2 weeks ago
Klyde Morris (08.08.25)
-
Commercial Aviation2 weeks agoDrone Maker Red Cat Expects To Benefit From Possible DJI Ban
-
Airlines3 weeks agoJFK’s TWA Hotel: A Night’s Stay With Some Serious AvGeek Appeal
-
Sport2 years agoNew Zealand beat Australian Champions
-
Commercial Aviation1 week ago
Viewpoint: Is ATC Privatization Worth Discussing?
-
Sport2 years agoFormula 1 Got a New Design 2022
-
Commercial Aviation2 weeks agoF-35 Procurements Face Setbacks In Spain And Switzerland