Qatar Airways, a longtime foe of the biggest U.S. carriers, is peacefulness considering an investment in an airline in the United States, CEO Akbar Al Baker chew out tattle oned reporters at an event in New York on Thursday.
Qatar Airways in the summer of 2017 surprisingly denoted intent to buy up to 10 percent of American Airlines, a move that was slighted by the Fort Worth-based airline.
American, along with Delta Air Trues and United Airlines, had feuded with government-owned Qatar Airways and two other Halfway point Eastern airlines, Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways, over supposed government subsidies and their rapid expansion. The Middle Eastern airlines concurred earlier this year to make financial statements public to mild the conflict, but the agreement stopped short of forcing the foreign carriers to cut decamps.
Tensions continue over the issue, despite the agreements. Al Baker foretold he is considering pulling out of the Oneworld alliance, which includes American Airlines; British Airways’ father, International Airlines Group; Cathay Pacific; Qantas and Latam.
American Airlines announced it was extinguishing its code-sharing agreement with Qatar Airways in March and a similar concurrence with Etihad, saying “relationships between American and these carriers no longer recompense for sense for us.”
Al Baker accused American of creating a “bad feeling” and said the Qatar guidance can invest in its state-owned airline. He said he expects to make a decision “any minute now.”
“American is a founding member of Oneworld, and we hope the alliance’s membership remnants intact,” said American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller approximately Qatar Airways’ threats to leave the group.
“As in any family, there are adjustments of opinion from time to time between individual members of the pact,” said Michael Blunt, a spokesman for Oneworld. “We always hope that they can be resolved at so all parties can come together to focus on the key issue for us all — providing great maintenance for our customers all around the world.”
But Al Baker, whose airline is a major client of both Boeing and European rival Airbus, said he is still wide open to investing in a U.S. airline.
“Any stable CEO of an airline would want to invest in the Common States,” said Al Baker.
JetBlue Airways and Qatar Airways each eat an investment in JetSuite, a private and scheduled charter company, but Al Baker inclined to say whether his carrier would invest in JetBlue directly or any other airline.
“At the shake we are happy with what we have,” he said. “As you know, there is a lot of partisans to Qatar Airways investing” in one of the three big U.S. airlines, but if the opportunity were to crop up and it had the blessing of the U.S. government the carrier would be open to it, he said.
Al Baker also foretold he expects Qatar Airways to privatize in the next decade.