An Interview With Mr Akbar Al Baker, CEO, Qatar Airways

A one to one interview with Mr Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, moderated by Mr John Strickland, Director of JLS Consulting at the Arabian Travel Market 2016.

1.        What is the performance of Qatar Airways?

“Qatar Airways is able to reflect on a number of successes. This was a momentous way to end what was a truly historic year for the national carrier of Qatar which has seen, amongst other things, several top award wins, the forging of new partnerships, strong engagement on social media, the launch of a new aircraft type and the start of several new routes on both passenger and cargo networks.”  - Arabian Travel Market Official Show Daily

Qatar has recently won the Best Airport Lounge in the Middle East, and is the Best Airline in the Middle East, and Airline with the Best Business Class.  We want to beat Incheon for the Best Airport in the World.

Our results is the best ever this year, but the figures will only be released in June.  I know the numbers, but I cannot tell you now.

2.       Where are the investments of Qatar Airways?

We have invested 12% in IAG, parent company of British Airways, which we see as a rising star.

We are in discussion to invest in Italian airline Meridiana.  There is good potential to grow, unfortunately it has bad management and we want to change that.  We want to make it into a global brand, and a national airline that Italy will be proud of.  But we are very clear, we will only invest in it if the unions play ball with us, if the employees are committed to the airline, and if they want to make more money by working harder.

We were very interested to invest in IndiGo, the best run airline in India.  However, we could not invest in the initial public offer (IPO) owing to government regulations and then, there was lack of sufficient time for our sovereign funds to buy IndiGo shares.  But we are still very interested in IndiGo if there is another opportunity.

3.       How do you respond to the US’ allegations about unfair practices?

We have not violated any open skies agreement.  We have not done any harm to US carriers. An airline for a small country is an economic driver. We get equity from the government who is the owner of the business.  For seven decades European air carriers have received government subsidies. The US carriers have received post 9/11 Chapter 11 legal protection, which is a subsidy. Carriers under StarAlliance like Thai Airways, also receive subsidies from their government.   We will prepare a report and we will show that there is no evidence of the US carriers’ allegations. 

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Watch - One to one interview with Group Chief Executive of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker at the Arabian Travel Market 2015 here. 


This is a very candid guy, who does not mince his words.