Qatar Airways to expand its partnership with other airlines; Group CEO

Qatar’s state-owned flag carrier Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive HE Akbar Al Baker has stated that their airways is set to expand its partnerships with other carriers, to broaden the travel opportunities for the airlines’ customers.

Mr. Al Baker said while speaking at CAPA Live, “We are very close with American Airlines, we are now going to expand our partnerships with other carriers, Air Canada is an example. In our industry, we are not adversaries, we are part of a larger aviation family.”

CAPA Live is a monthly event organized by CAPA – Centre for Aviation, one of the world’s most trusted sources of market intelligence for the aviation and travel industry, to provide information, data, and live interviews by CAPA experts, global airline CEOs, and other cutting-edge industry leaders.

“After this pandemic is over, there will be fewer airlines that will be operating for certain. By the grace of God, we will be one of them because we have persevered and have carried the flag of Qatar internationally. We have established ourselves very strongly; made everybody aware of our brand, our product. The A350s and B787s are very efficient aircraft when it comes to emissions, especially the A350-1000, which exceeded our expectations with its efficiency that it is producing today.”

“Post-COVID, we will look at which routes we will reintroduce earlier than the other, Qatar Airways will serve all the routes we had launched after the blockade and what we had launched before the COVID restrictions happened,” he further added.

Qatar Airways is already in the process of expanding its alliances with other airlines. It has recently signed an extended codeshare agreement with Oman Air to improve connectivity and provide both airlines’ customers with more convenient travel options.

Last month, the state-owned airlines further informed that the first phase of codeshare cooperation with China Southern Airlines has begun with the Chinese carrier placing its code on Qatar Airways flights between Guangzhou and Doha.

Furthermore, a codeshare agreement with Air Canada for travel between Doha and Toronto was finalized by Qatar Airways in November 2020. The agreement reinforced the long-term commitment of Qatar Airways to Canadian passengers and to strengthen Canada’s global connectivity to help tourism and trade recovery.