Qatar unprepared for World Cup air traffic crush, report says
An estimated 3.5 million passengers will take to the air during the tournament, but the transportation system is woefully out of balance and unprepared for the crush, according to a report released on Wednesday in Doha.
The transport minister of Qatar, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, cited a recent trip by the United Nations (UN) official responsible for transportation, Jan Wosnitzky, who estimated the world transport system is about 18% less efficient than it was in 1998.
“It’s been in a state of transition, it’s in flux, it’s been through a period of transition in which it’s been in need of renovation,” Wosnitzky told reporters last week.
According to the UN report commissioned by the Qatar Football Association, the world’s transport systems were not capable of coping with the expected 4.5 million passengers over the course of the tournament.
More than four million of those would travel in the “high-capacity” transport, leaving less than half of 1 million in the low-capacity category, according to World Bank analysis.
The report said the system was unprepared to cope with such a huge influx, with over 1 million extra passengers arriving in Qatar every day in comparison with normal traffic.
In response, the country has promised to speed up and modernise the infrastructure, but the Qatar Transport Authority admitted on Tuesday (26 September) that most of the planned investments and upgrades has been halted by lack of funds.
The report, which cost $4.2m and was ordered by Sheikh Abdullah, showed a fundamental failure in the way the world’s transport systems are planned and built, with the Qatari government being at best an observer in the development and at worst a passive target.
“The plan is to modernise the infrastructure for all the transport modes in the country to upgrade the capacities of the existing transport infrastructure to meet the requirements of the World Cup,” the report said. “The Qatari side has made commitments on this issue and is committed to ensure that the World Cup will bring about
