American Airlines boss ‘scared’ of Qatar’s investment plan

Qatar Airways ratcheted up a war of words with American Airlines Group over its plans to take a stake in the US carrier, with CEO Akbar Al Baker saying his counterpart Doug Parker was “frightened” by the plan.

The Persian Gulf company intended to buy up American Air stock, assuming it remained attractively priced regardless of opposition from Parker, who has dismissed the plan as “puzzling at best and concerning at worst”, Al Baker said in Dublin.

“We will not impose ourselves on anybody,” the executive told reporters on Thursday. “However our filing is very well advanced and we hope to start buying shares on the open market soon. We want to be a strategic shareholder. We’re not telling them what to do.”

The value that Qatari investment could bring to American would become apparent once the Mideast operator purchased the 4.75% stake it was able to buy without seeking approval from the Texas-based company’s board, Al Baker said. There were no plans to go beyond a 10% holding and certainly not to the maximum 20% available to a foreign carrier, he said. Neither would there be an attempt to secure a seat on the board.

While Qatar Air and American are partners in the Oneworld global alliance and each counts British Airways as their closest global partner, with Qatar owning a 20% stake in British Airways parent IAG, the planned investment still came as a surprise given recent tensions between the two.

American Air and Parker have led calls from US carriers to stem the expansion of the three biggest Gulf operators, also including Dubai-based Emirates and Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi, arguing that they have unfairly benefited from illegal government aid.

The Mideast majors say they have benefited from no more than seed capital many years ago and have become world players thanks to a strategy of exploiting the Gulf’s position at a natural global crossroads to carve off a significant share of the most lucrative long-haul transfer traffic.

The American Airlines stock would mark a fourth foray into foreign investment by Qatar Air, including a planned 49% stake in minor Italian carrier Meridiana.