Qatar Airways reaffirms its commitment to fight against illegal wildlife trade
Qatar Airways attends a meeting of the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce at Lancaster House, London
Airline signed the Buckingham Palace Declaration in 2016, demonstrating its commitment to protecting wildlife from illegal trade and transportation
DOHA, Qatar, 2017-Nov-06 — /Travel PR News/ — Qatar Airways attended a meeting of the signatories to the United For Wildlife Transport Taskforce Buckingham Palace Declaration hosted by the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and in the presence of HRH The Duke of Cambridge and the Rt Hon. the Lord Hague of Richmond at Lancaster House in London on Wednesday 1 November 2017.
Acknowledging the scale and complexity of the challenge of illegal wildlife transportation, Qatar Airways signed the Buckingham Palace Declaration in March 2016 as one of a small group of aviation industry leaders invited to attend the signing ceremony in London, to demonstrate their commitment to protecting wildlife from illegal trade and transportation.
Qatar Airways has a policy of zero tolerance towards the illegal transportation of endangered species through its network and is dedicated to delivering its commitment to the Declaration, including raising employee and passenger awareness of illegal wildlife transportation, improving detection of illegally transported wildlife and sharing intelligence and best practice within the industry.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “Qatar Airways remains faithful to our commitments to the Buckingham Palace Declaration. Since signing the Declaration, we have ramped up efforts on all fronts in the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking. This month we launched an extensive passenger awareness campaign, and our customers will start to notice our new wildlife posters appearing at our Doha hub, Hamad International Airport, and at strategically selected outposts worldwide. Passengers will find more information on-board with a new video appearing on our in-flight entertainment system, Oryx One, and a feature length article included in the November issue of our in-flight magazine, Oryx.”
Qatar Airways is also in the final stages of developing a specially tailored e-learning package to improve the capacity of its workforce to identify and manage suspicious activity relating to illegal wildlife transportation. The training, which will be rolled out later this year, will be targeted at staff most likely to encounter illegal wildlife trafficking, including cargo and customer-facing roles.
Qatar Airways Cargo, the third largest air cargo carrier in the world, implements rigorous procedures in their requirements of consignors, in an enhanced effort to prevent and detect misconsignment, one of the primary ways that this illegal trade is carried out.
The illegal trade of wildlife is the fourth largest black market in the world—worth approximately USD $20 billion annually—and affects more than 7,000 species of animals and plants. Criminal organisations involved in wildlife trafficking are often directly connected to other trafficking networks, including the smuggling of narcotics, arms and people. Wildlife traffickers regularly exploit the increasing connectivity of global transportation, threatening human health and security, creating risk throughout industry supply chains and pushing animal species into extinction.
Aware of the scale of this problem, Qatar Airways has developed a global collaborative network including government authorities, international regulators and sector experts such as the USAID ROUTES Partnership (Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species). It also maintains highly cooperative relationships with other international carriers, freight forwarders and customs agents to ensure transparency and effective information exchange and to increase deterrence and detection of this criminal activity.
For Images : https://www.flickr.com/photos/qatarairways/albums/72157688022101451
Notes to Editors:
About Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways, the national carrier of the State of Qatar, is celebrating 20 years of Going Places Together with travellers across its more than 150 business and leisure destinations. The world’s fastest-growing airline will add a number of exciting new destinations to its growing network in 2017/18, including St. Petersburg, Russia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Canberra, Australia and many more, flying passengers on board its modern fleet of more than 200 aircraft.
A multiple award-winning airline, Qatar Airways was recently named ‘Airline of the Year’ by the 2017 World Airline Awards, managed by international air transport rating organisation Skytrax. It was also named ‘World’s Best Business Class,’ ‘Best Airline in the Middle East,’ and ‘World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge.’
Qatar Airways is a member of the oneworld global alliance. The award-winning alliance was named the World’s Best Airline Alliance 2015 by Skytrax for the third year running. Qatar Airways was the first Gulf carrier to join global airline alliance, oneworld, enabling its passengers to benefit from more than 1,000 airports in more than 150 countries, with 14,250 daily departures.
Oryx One, Qatar Airways’ in-flight entertainment system offers passengers up to 4,000 entertainment options from the latest blockbuster movies, TV box sets, music, games and much more. Passengers flying on Qatar Airways flights served by its B787, A350, A380, A319 and select A320 and A330 aircraft can also stay in touch with their friends and family around the world by using the award-winning airline’s on-board Wi-Fi and GSM service.
Qatar Airways proudly supports a range of exciting international and local initiatives dedicated to enriching the global community that it serves. Qatar Airways, the official FIFA partner, is the official sponsor of many top-level sporting events, including the FIFA 2018 and 2022 World Cups, reflecting the values of sports as a means of bringing people together, something at the core of the airline’s own brand message – Going Places Together.
Qatar Airways Cargo, the world’s third largest international cargo carrier, serves more than 60 exclusive freighter destinations worldwide via its world-class Doha hub and also delivers freight to more than 150 key business and leisure destinations globally with more than 200 aircraft. The Qatar Airways Cargo fleet includes eight Airbus A330 freighters, 12 Boeing 777 freighters and one Boeing 747-8 freighter.
For further information, please contact:
Qatar Airways Group, Corporate Communications Department
Tel: +974 4022 2200
+974 4022 5350
qrmedia@qatarairways.com.qa