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Qatar Airways aims to score first with gas-powered planes

DUBAI - Qatar Airways aims to become the first carrier in the world to fuel its fleet with natural gas, an airline executive said to a newspaper on Tuesday.

The state-owned airline of the Gulf country which holds more than 15 percent of the world’s proven gas reserves would announce details of the plan at the Dubai Air Show next month.

‘Qatar Gas, Shell and Qatar Airways are currently talking to each other to finalise a plan for flying aircraft on natural gas,’ the English-language daily quoted the airline’s commercial general manager Ali Al Rais as saying.

He said that state-owned Qatar Gas and Shell were in turn holding talks with Rolls-Royce and General Electric to develop an engine for the natural gas-powered aircraft.

‘Ours would be the first carrier in the world to use this techonology. Engineers and scientists are working tirelessly to make this happen and it will happen,’ Rais added.

A Rolls-Royce official told the paper that the firm was in discussions with several airlines regarding alternative fuels, adding that switching to gas-powered planes would be more cost effective for airlines.

Rais also told the paper that Qatar Airways has 150 planes on order, including five double-decker Airbus A380s, the world’s biggest passenger liner.

Qatar’s giant North Field has proven reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet (25 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas, the third largest in the world after Russia and Iran.