Kicking Off
Fresh from signing a new deal with Boeing worth more than $27 billion, Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO of Qatar Airways, is now working on plans to transport over a million international football fans to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. As passenger numbers pick up, he’s feeling optimistic.
Fresh from signing a new deal with Boeing worth more than $27 billion, Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO of Qatar Airways, is now working on plans to transport over a million international football fans to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. As passenger numbers pick up, he’s feeling optimistic.
The last few years may have felt like a bit of a rollercoaster for the aviation industry. In 2019, record numbers of tourists were travelling around the world, with international arrivals globally hitting nearly 1.5 billion according to UNWTO. Travel had become quicker, easier, and cheaper. Airplanes were full, airports were buzzing, and destinations were thriving. And then, the unthinkable happened. As the pandemic hit, runways became empty and airports muted. Across the world, passenger aircraft worth billions sat side-by-side, parked motionless for months as the industry ground to a halt. By 2021, global tourist arrivals had slumped by over 73% to less than 415 million across the year. But, as we entered 2022, things were once again looking up. After a cautious start to recovery in 2021, tourist numbers are now rising more steadily, and for one of the world’s biggest international airlines, it’s time to get back to work.
“Thankfully for us it has been always a roller, not a coaster,” says Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO and Executive Board Member at Qatar Airways. “We have always rolled ahead; we never stopped.” Qatar Airways saw its revenues drop from $14 billion in the 2020 financial year (which ended March 31, 2020) to $8.1 billion the following year, and saw its losses more than double from $1.9 billion to $4.1 billion in the same period. In the 2021 financial year, Doha’s Hamad International Airport served 6.9 million passengers—an 81% decrease on the year before. But it will take more than a rocky patch to faze the CEO; this is far from the first challenge he’s faced.
The industry stalwart and qualified pilot has been at the helm of Qatar’s national carrier since 1997. When he started, the plan was to build a fleet of 35 aircraft to serve 35 destinations. Today, Qatar Airways has 234 aircraft and 16 corporate jets, serving more than 140 locations around the world, with assets worth $38.9 billion. These numbers are not enough to make it the biggest airline in the Middle East—it is still second to the U.A.E.’s Emirates Group, with its fleet of 259 and assets of $45.2 billion as of March 2021—but Qatar Airways is making moves to grow.
In January 2022, Qatar Airways signed a deal with Boeing worth more than $20 billion for up to 50 of Boeing’s new 777-8 freighters, making it the launch customer for the jets. It also placed an order worth more than $6.8 billion with GE for engines for 34 of its new freighters, and it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Boeing for a firm order of 25 of its 737-10 passenger aircraft and purchase rights for an additional 25 in a deal that could be worth up to $7 billion. “The new 777-8 Freighter offers the highest payload and the lowest fuel use, emissions and operating cost per tonne of any large freighter,” says Omar Arekat, Vice President for the Middle East and Africa at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “[Qatar Airways’ order is] the largest freighter commitment in Boeing history by value.” The freighters have been purchased to replace Qatar Airways’ current all-Boeing cargo fleet as it comes to the end of its lifecycle, and they will start to be delivered from 2027. Of the 50,
34 are replacing the airline’s owned and leased freighters, with 16 additional jets earmarked to allow for growth in its cargo business.
The deal with Boeing comes at a time when Qatar Airways’ relationship with Airbus is experiencing some turbulence. In January 2022, Airbus sought to cancel an order of 50 A321neos for Qatar Airways as part of an ongoing dispute. The airline had been declining to receive deliveries since June 2021, citing faster-than-expected deterioration of the surface below the paint on some of its fleet of 21 A350s. In August 2021, the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority reportedly ordered Qatar Airways to ground 13 of the aircraft, and in December, the airline issued legal proceedings against Airbus citing safety concerns. The national carrier is reportedly seeking $618 million in contractual
“We don’t want 20 million tourists. We want quality tourists.”
compensation from Airbus. Meanwhile, the European manufacturer responded by launching its own independent legal assessment. In February 2022, Airbus reportedly cancelled a further order of two A350-1000 jets for Qatar Airways as the battle rolled on, and by the end of the month it had launched its own $220 million claim over two undelivered airliners, according to Reuters. “Airbus restates there is no airworthiness issue, which has been confirmed by EASA. All other A350 customers are continuing to operate their A350 aircraft,” says an Airbus spokesperson. Al Baker declines to discuss the matter, but does say that Airbus did not have the opportunity to bid for Qatar Airways’ freighter replacement contract. In a statement in February, Qatar Airways said, "It is important to clarify that neither Qatar Airways nor its legal team is aware of any efforts by Airbus to try to resolve the situation in an amicable way; in fact, the actual situation is to the contrary," according to an AFP report.
Disputes aside, it’s an exciting time for the CEO and for Qatar. The country is deep into preparations to host the biggest football tournament in the world from late November to mid-December when the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 kicks off in Doha. It will be the first time the competition has ever been played in the Middle East. When it was last held in 2018 in Russia, more than 7.7 million local and international fans watched the matches on site from the FIFA Fan Fest venue, up from 5.2 million in Brazil in 2014, according to FIFA data. A global audience of more than three billion worldwide tuned in to watch it on TV. These are big numbers for Qatar to consider—the small peninsula has a population of less than three million people.
“Organizers estimate to welcome over one million visitors during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” reveals a FIFA spokesperson. “From a fan perspective, this is a once in a lifetime experience. We are now less than a year away from the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and the Arab World, and having sponsors based in the region, such as Qatar Airways, creates exciting synergies.”
Al Baker is unsurprisingly expecting Qatar to attract a lot of attention. “There is a huge interest, a lot more interest than was shown in other World Cups, for people to come to Qatar because they have heard so much about our country over the last 10 years,” he enthuses. As an official sponsor, an official partner, and the official airline for the event, Qatar Airways is currently making plans to accommodate hordes of additional passengers entering the country over the course of its expected 28-day run. This includes expanding infrastructure at Hamad International Airport and increasing load capacity by partnering with other airlines from neighbouring countries where necessary. The CEO admits, however, that it’s a tough thing to plan for. “Our operation will have to be very dynamic. We will have to shift capacity and frequencies to places depending on the results,” he explains. “In the first half of the period there will be a lot of stress, and then in the other half the teams will reduce as they go out.”
Beyond the World Cup, Qatar—as with many of its Middle Eastern neighbours—is also more generally increasing investment into its tourism industry to help diversify its oil-dependent economy. It hopes to welcome six million visitors per year by 2030, nearly three times more than the 2.1 million it welcomed in 2019, according to Qatar Tourism. As well as his position at Qatar Airways, in 2019 Al Baker was appointed Secretary-General of Qatar’s National Tourism Council, which became Qatar Tourism in 2021, where he now serves as chairman. He has been very involved in kickstarting the country’s new tourism ambitions. Once the exuberance of the World Cup dies down, Qatar is hoping to attract people for its culture. “We don’t want 20 million
tourists,” Al Baker reveals. “We want quality tourists. We want education tourism. We want cultural tourism. We want people who want to come and be secluded and be left in peace.” He paints a serene picture of a calm and luxurious destination. And as someone who has spent his career in aviation, he knows how to get people there.
Al Baker held several roles at Qatar’s Civil Aviation Directorate before taking on the role at Qatar Airways. “I never imagined that I would be catapulted into running an airline,” he remembers. At the time, Qatar had spent years serving as a stop-off for other international airlines. It decided it was time to create its own. “We were cut off in the 90s by new technology in airplanes,” Al Baker explains. “With the advent of the 747s and the long range 767s, airlines stopped coming to us and were flying directly from the west over us to the east. It was imperative that we launch an airline to serve our interests.”
Qatar Airways was initially launched as a small regional carrier in 1994, but it was re-launched in 1997 with an international mandate when Al Baker came on board. At that time it still only had four aircraft; by 2006 it had 50. By 2011, Qatar Airways was serving 100 routes. Then in 2014, Qatar began operations at its new Hamad International Airport, which was developed at a cost of $15.5 billion. With an initial capacity of 30 million passengers a year, its check-in and retail areas are roughly 12 times the size of that at Doha International Airport. Current expansion plans are to increase capacity at the airport to over 50 million passengers in time for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Al Baker admits that when he was first appointed he felt there were many in the industry that doubted he could pull off the task at hand. Nearly 25 years’ later, he’s happy to have proved them wrong. However, it has also been a journey permeated with challenges. The CEO points out previous outbreaks to hit the Middle East, including SARS in the early 2000s and MERS in 2012, which had an impact on travel to the region, although none so catastrophic as the COVID-19 pandemic.
As he faces arguably one of his biggest challenges yet—preparing Qatar and its national carrier for a daunting influx of passionate football fans—Al Baker today seems pretty relaxed. “I’ve learnt a lot and I still keep learning things as a CEO,” he reasons. “When you have the fire in your belly to take on whatever challenge you have, then any difficulty will always be short lived.”
“When you have the fire in your belly to take on whatever challenge you have, then any difficulty will always be short lived.”