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Akbar Al Baker was never a big fan of the Airbus A380. Now the head of Qatar Airways is considering dismantling the super jumbo for good.
Qatar Airways is generous. With a 9.99 percent stake, the golf airline is Cathay Pacific’s third largest shareholder. If the Hong Kong airline needs a financial injection in the crown crisis, “we will definitely support it,” Qatar Airways chief Akbar Al Baker told the South China Morning Post newspaper.
They were able to do this, even if they themselves had been hit by the global decline in demand. In another interview, Al Baker makes it clear that Qatar Airways is also suffering greatly. He tells the Airline Ratings portal that his airline only has money to keep it running for a short time.
Qatar Airways significantly reduces fleet size
He also expects state aid. “We will certainly ask our government for equity at some point,” Al Baker said. The airline has maintained routes to around 30 destinations and since the end of June plans to expand the flight schedule to around 80 destinations again. As a national airline, it fully belongs to the Emirate of Qatar.
The golf airline will also not escape without austerity measures. It has already begun to significantly reduce the workforce of 45,000 people. In addition, it plans to reduce the fleet by a quarter. A year ago, Qatar Airways proudly celebrated the taking of the 250th plane.
A380 is far from flying
The future of the Airbus A380 is extremely uncertain. “Qatar Airways is parking its ten A380s and they won’t be back for at least a year,” says Al Baker, “maybe never.” The airline boss has previously criticized the superjumbo as too heavy and too inefficient.
At the beginning of last year, he announced that he would send the super jumbos starting on the tenth anniversary. Qatar Airways added the first A380 to the fleet in 2014, the 10th in 2018. The golf airline operates it in Bangkok, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, London, Melbourne, Paris, Perth and Sydney.
Q-Suite creates distance
Al Baker believes that aviation will recover to the 2019 level before 2023, as Lufthansa expects. However, he predicts: “Profits will decrease as premium traffic decreases.” Among other things, Al Baker notes that companies are getting used to using online conferencing. After the global financial crisis in 2008 announced the decline of first-class travel, Corona was the next hit for business travel.
Meanwhile, Qatar wants to continue equipping its business class aircraft with the Q-Suite. Mini suites currently also have the advantage that they can be used to implement social hygiene and distance measures.
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