Willie Walsh is praised by rival
Qatar Airways’ feisty CEO Akbar Al Baker took the opportunity to niggle rivals, lambast IATA and slam governments for stifling business opportunities during a spirited aviation seminar at Arabian Travel Market.
But he heaped praise on IAG (British Airways) boss Willie Walsh, whom he described as "a good friend".
Al Baker, recently praised by Walsh for his leadership of Qatar Airways, said he has "high respect for Willie".
"I respect what he did for British Airways. I like people who stand up to be counted. He stood up to the unions and won at a very difficult time.
"And he doesn’t bad mouth the competition. I always say that if you cannot defeat someone, you should make an ally of them."
Al Baker said he was aware of speculation that Qatar Airways would join the oneworld alliance alongside British Airways, but he said that Qatar first had to be invited before considering its options.
Here’s what else the Qatar Airways CEO had to say:
On IATA:
"It was being run by friends for friends of Giovanni Inc (former CEO and director general Giovanni Bisignani). I have great confidence that under Tony Tyler (new CEO and DG, ex Cathay Pacific), IATA will change and become more transparent for member airlines.
"Tony will have to break the circle of deceit among certain officials and run the organisation in the best interests of the airlines who are its members."
On Middle East Airlines:
"There will only be two dominant carriers in the region: Emirates and Qatar. I’m aware that Etihad recently announced a profit, but profitability doesn’t equate to dominance.
"We previously targeted 120 destinations globally for Qatar Airways but we are revising that figure upwards to 170 destinations within the next three years."
On Qatar expansion:
"We’ve been very successful in choosing the right destinations to fly to – our decisions are based mostly on economic reasons. Most times we get it right but when we get it wrong it’s as a result of governments trying to stifle business opportunities. We had 90% load factors flying to Cebu (Philippines) but the government had a bad tax policy for airlines so we withdrew."
On competition with European airlines:
"It was the European airlines who taught us about airline hubs but now the genie is out of the bottle. European airlines are only making a noise about unfair competition from Middle East airlines so they can continue to overcharge passengers for inferior products. They don’t like the competition because of our higher standards."
By Ian Jarrett
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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