Qatar Airways has called a review of its advertising account. The airline, which uses the tagline ‘The world’s 5-star airline’, would not comment on the move or confirm that it was taking place, although it is understood that an RFP has been sent out to a number of agencies.
Batey Singapore won the airline’s creative account back in 2007 and teamed up with WPP sibling Bates PanGulf (BPG), which provided the back-end Arabic support. However, in 2009 Batey became part of Grey Global Group Asia Pacific, another WPP sibling, heralding the end of its affiliation with BPG, which is now in the process of opening its own fully-owned officer in Qatar. Since Batey became part of Grey, the Qatar Airways account has been jointly handled by Grey in Doha. Batey declined to comment on the review.
Last year, Qatar Airways was voted the third best airline in the world following the annual 2010 Skytrax survey of 18 million passengers. In the survey, it was also honoured as the best airline in the Middle East for the fifth consecutive year.
