News
Qatar Airways announces new destinations; Meridiana deal uncertain
July 7th 2017
Qatar Airways group CEO, Akbar Al Baker, appeared unperturbed about the diplomatic standoff between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours when he announced two route launches on Monday. Read More »
“It’s business as usual,” Al Baker said. “Qatar Airways’ announcement today comes at a time when we are accelerating our global expansion plans by expediting the launch of two new destinations.”
From August 8, Qatar Airways will service Doha-Sohar (in Oman) three times a week with A320s. Two weeks later, the oneworld carrier will add a daily Doha-Prague route, with 144-seat A320. Al Baker said several more destinations would be announced “shortly”.
Qatar Airways started a route to Nice on Tuesday and will begin flying to Skopje next week. Other previously announced destinations include Canberra, Santiago de Chile, Rio de Janeiro, Chiang Mai, U-Tapao, Chittagong and Medan.
Suffering from overcapacity after Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE closed their airports to all Qatar Airways flights, the national carrier has wet-leased nine A320s to British Airways to cover for a cabin crew strike that began on July 1. Qatar Airways owns a 20.01% stake in International Airlines Group, parent of British Airways.
Qatar’s diplomatic situation is taking a toll on Qatar Airways’ planned acquisition of 49% in Italy’s Meridiana. The Qatari carrier missed a June 30 deadline to contribute US$41.5 million to Meridiana’s new holding company, Aqa Holding.
“The finalization of the Meridiana deal was imminent until this big diplomatic problem with Qatar erupted,” Italy's Minister of Transport, Graziano del Rio, told Italian media. “We hope this situation resolves itself soon and leads to the rapid conclusion of the Meridiana deal as we had been ready to do.”
The Qatar-Meridiana deal is crucial for Italian aviation. Flag carrier Alitalia has declared bankruptcy. If the Meridiana deal failed, the country could be without a sizable airline.
While Qatar Airways appears to be struggling to close the Meridiana deal, it has not changed its plan, so far, to purchase up to 10% of publicly-traded shares in American Airlines. American CEO, Doug Parker, said he was "not particularly excited" about this "puzzling" bid and added it “would in no way change the company’s board composition, governance, management or strategic direction,” a clear reference to the on-going Open Skies dispute between the U.S. and Gulf carriers.
