- Title: QATAR: QATAR SAYS IT WILL KEEP ITS MAIN AIRPORT OPEN EVEN IF WAR BEGINS IN IRAQ.
- Date: 19th March 2003
- Summary: (W4) DOHA, QATAR (MARCH 19, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. EXTERIOR DOHA AIRPORT 2. WIDE INTERIOR OF RADAR ROOM 3. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS WORKING AT DESK 4. CLOSE-UP OF RADAR 5. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER TALKING ON PHONE 6. MAN WRITING NOTES 7. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS IN CONTROL TOWER 8. WIDE OF AMERICAN MILITARY PLANES PARKED ON TARMAC AT DOHA AIRPORT 9. U.S. GALAXY TRANSPORT PLANE PARKED ON RUNWAY 10. PAN FROM BINOCULARS TO AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER IN TOWER 11. ROW OF QATAR AIRWAYS PLANES PARKED ON TARMAC 12. AKBAR AL-BAKER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF QATAR AIRWAYS,TALKING ON PHONE 13. CLOSE-UP OF AL-BAKER, PAN TO HIS HAND 14. SOUNDBITE (English) AKBAR AL-BAKER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF QATAR AIRWAYS (asked how Doha International Airport would be affected in case of war) SAYING: "We are far away from the front, we are out of the range of any weapon that could be in position of anybody on that side of the region. We will continue as an airline to operate (during war) because we are a civil airliner." 15. MODEL PLANE 16. SOUNDBITE (English) AKBAR AL-BAKER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF QATAR AIRWAYS SAYING: "Doha airport is not a military airport, it's a civil airport and again: it will be functional twenty-four hours a day at any time during the day and night. So we are going to continue normal operations both as an airline and as the airport." 17. PHOTOGRAPHS OF EMIRS FAMILY 18. SOUNDBITE (English) AKBAR AL-BAKER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF QATAR AIRWAYS SAYING: "We do not allow military controllers to enter our radar rooms or control towers. This is a civil airport, okay? The logistics wing of the American Air Force is using the runway which has enough capacity to handle them and otherwise, they don't have any other movement other than logistics from this airfield and we have no problem coping with it." 19. ORYX, THE QATAR AIRWAYS SYMBOL 20. SOUNDBITE (English) AKBAR AL-BAKER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF QATAR AIRWAYS SAYING: "It (Doha International Airport) is a supply base. Logistics is, I mean, you know, you can see from my office across the runway: all the airplanes there are just transport airplanes. So it's a logistics wing, it's not a fighter wing that is, you know, based at this airport." 21. PASSENGERS CHECKING IN LUGGAGE FOR FLIGHT TO KHARTOUM, SUDAN 22. CLOSE-UP OF PASSENGERS PASSPORT COVER 23. WIDE OF CHECK-IN COUNTER 24. LUGGAGE BEING X-RAYED Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 3rd April 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DOHA, QATAR
- Country: Qatar
- Reuters ID: LVAEUFJPMK2QR47WIZ6327KT1FNN
- Story Text: Every air-control radar screen in the Gulf will light
up if U.S. forces attack Iraq in the coming hours, but that
does not mean passenger flights will be grounded and airports
closed.
The tiny Gulf state of Qatar is to keep it's main
airport open even in the event of conflict with regional
neighbour Iraq.
"Doha airport is not a military airport, it's a civil
airport. It will be functional twenty-four hours a day at any
time during the day and night," Akbar Al-Baker, chief
executive officer of Qatar Airways told Reuters in an
interview on Wednesday (March 19). Qatar Airways also runs
Doha international airport.
"We are going to continue normal operations both as an
airline and as the airport," Al-Baker said.
The Gulf's skylines, congested by military traffic for the
past two months of war build-up, will be suddenly filled with
hundreds of cruise missiles, fighters, bombers, tankers and
electronic warfare aircraft.
The emirate of Qatar hosts the war command station of
General Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command an overall
controller of U.S. and allied forces, plus a major military
airbase with squadrons of fighter planes and F-117 stealth
bombers.
"We are far away from the front. We are out of the range
of any weapon which could be in possession of anybody on that
side of the region," said Akbar Al-Baker.
The view from Al-Baker's office takes in two dozen U.S.
Air Force transport planes that have been ferrying military
supplies in and out of Qatar for weeks, doubling the airports
normal traffic.
Two "Commando Solo" propaganda broadcast aircraft are
parked near Qatar airforce Mirage-2000 fighters.
U.S. President George Bush has warned Iraq that military
action will begin anytime after 0115 GMT on Thursday (March
20) unless Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons go
into exile.
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