Regional Round-Up
Qatar boss would consider an IPO
December 1st 2014
Outspoken Qatar Airways chief executive officer (CEO), Akbar Al Baker said during a panel discussion at the Arab Air Carriers Organisation recent annual general meeting in Dubai, he wanted three “growing airlines” in the Gulf: Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. Read More » When the moderator asked him about other carriers, including Air Arabia, flydubai, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways and Oman Air, Al Baker said: “I don’t care.”
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Al Baker told the forum he was open to privatising Qatar Airways once its rapid growth stabilised. The chiefs of EgyptAir and Oman Air said they also were considering privatisation. The Qatar CEO could not resist a dig at his European rivals, calling their operations “inefficient”, particularly blaming “workers’ unions for costing the European airlines a lot of money and frequently grounding their fleets”.
Al Baker said the three-month delay in the arrival of its first superjumbo A380 cost the airline more than US$200 million in revenue. Asked if Qatar Airways would join Emirates in its call for a more fuel-efficient A380 engine, the CEO said “it is premature for us to talk about this”, but added that he did not think Airbus was in a position to re-engine the A380 with the number of orders the Toulouse manufacturer has.
