Qatar Airways boss Akbar
Al Baker has said he “does not care” about smaller GCC airlines as he
and Emirates and Etihad become international frontrunners.
During
a panel discussion at the Arab Air Carriers Organization annual general
meeting in Dubai recently, Al Baker said he wanted there to be three
“growing airlines” in this region.
When the moderator asked him
what of the others, including FlyDubai, Arab Air, based in Sharjah, Oman
Air, Gulf Air in Bahrain and Kuwait Airways, Al Baker said: “I don’t
care”.
During the same discussion, the often outspoken airline
chief also said he was open to privatizing Qatar Airways once its rapid
growth stabilized.
The airline began fully government owned last
year when the country’s former prime minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al
Thani and other shareholders sold their shares.
“Once I have established myself as a very established carrier I wouldn’t mind (being privatized),” he said.
The heads of Oman Air, Paul Gregorowitsch, and EgyptAir, Sameh Al Hefny, also floated the idea of privatization.
Government
ownership has led to criticism from European and American airline
bosses, who claim Gulf-based companies have been able to claim
significant slices of the global air travel market because of government
support that includes hefty loans, gas subsidies, low tax and cut-price
airport access fees.
Al Baker said their operations were to blame, not the Gulf carriers.
“There is enough business... They are inefficient,” he said, according to AFP.
He also pointed the finger at workers’ unions.
“It is the unions that should be blamed,” he said.
Al
Baker said European countries intervened far more than the US to
protect home carriers. “EU without doubt,” he said, naming France and
Germany in particular.
“We have problems in France, Germany, the
Netherlands and elsewhere... Stirred by two individual countries:
Germany and France,” he said.
- Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com
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