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Home » Qatar Airways » Qatar Airways CEO: “The Worst Is Not Behind Any Airline”
Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways CEO: “The Worst Is Not Behind Any Airline”

Matthew Klint Posted onOctober 9, 2020November 14, 2023 5 Comments

a woman wearing a face mask and a white coat in an airplane

The ever-animated CEO of Qatar Airways is back, this time with a dire warning for the airline industry.

Qatar Airways CEO Warns Of Grim Future For Worldwide Airline Industry

Speaking on CNBC, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker warned:

“The worst is not behind any airline, not only Qatar Airways. There will soon be other bailouts in Europe, there will be other collapses around the world. Because of the second wave, I think it is…even more severe than in the first wave.”

Adding an ominous warning about monopolies, Al Baker added:

“I think that there will be more reduction in capacity, which in a way is also not good for the traveling public because then it will give a monopolistic situation to certain airlines that exactly wanted this to happen.”

He also doesn’t believe in travel bubbles:

“Okay if you don’t want to import people, but people want to leave the country, so they should be allowed to do so. That is not happening. You know, this notion of creating bubbles is really, in my opinion, a nonsense.”

And warns of particularly bad losses for Qatar Airways:

“I need to tell you that our losses will continue because every single airline in the world will continue to lose money because there are no more passengers to carry,” he said, adding: “Or there are big numbers of passengers to carry like we are actually carrying, but the traffic is one way because most of the countries have kept their airports closed.”

Which will necessitate more bailouts, a pattern he expects to see around the world:

“Every country in the world depends on their national carrier to serve the economic interests of the country. So it is absolutely important that governments stand with the airlines. I don’t know if the answer would be nationalization because they are funding hugely private airlines.”

Recovery will not come for 3-5 years:

“I think that if this pandemic spreads further into the near future, that the recovery could be even beyond 2024. I don’t think it’ll be 10 years, but it will certainly be between three and five years.”

CONCLUSION

We often laugh about Al Baker’s antics, but he’s an industry veteran who also offers a lot of wisdom.

Already, 43 airlines have folded around the world this year. With a bleak winter coming, I don’t think his doomsday perditions are unreasonable. We all certainly hope he is wrong, but let’s see how these next few months play out.

Do you think Al Baker is being far to pessimistic concerning the worldwide airline industry?

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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5 Comments

  1. Gene Reply
    October 9, 2020 at 7:08 am

    @ Mattnew — I would expect a grim outlook for purely international airlines like QR, EK and SQ. However, they will all receive virtually endless government funding, so they will be fine.

  2. ken Reply
    October 9, 2020 at 8:32 am

    and this is coming from CEO of an airline that exercises monopoly for so many routes? This was particularly bad when most airlines shut down some routes and Qatar was the only airline that was operating and they charged insane amount of money….

  3. WB Reply
    October 9, 2020 at 3:19 pm

    Respectfully disagree this guy “offers a lot of wisdom.”

    And did you mean doomsday predictions instead of perditions? Though things certainly look and feel like Perdition in this industry right now.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      October 9, 2020 at 3:25 pm

      I did mean predictions, but you’re right…it’s both!

    • Roy Reply
      October 9, 2020 at 8:48 pm

      He does predict doomsday (u mean end of world right?) he mean this current situation takes very very long long time to recovery which can be true….. We never know…. Nas Daily says 2 years….. Well….. At lease we know this thing gonna be us for long long time…. How long? We not sure!!!!!

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