Al Baker and Airbus

As ever outspoken, Qatar Airways’ Akbar Al Baker is one of the airline industry’s most pragmatic leaders.

He delivered his views on his airline’s relationship with Airbus at the Paris Air Show.  

At an informal media briefing in the airline’s chalet, just a few yards from the mammoth Airbus exposition, he said that the two companies are again on neighbourly relations following a settlement reached in February over an acrimonious legal clash regarding the airline’s A350-1000 fleet. The dispute centred on the deterioration of skin paint on its A350-1000s.

“We are back on very good terms with them,” he made clear. “We both know that they are an important supplier for us, and they know that we are an important customer of theirs.”

“We never questioned the safety of the Airbus airplane,” stressed Al Baker. “We wouldn’t be flying the remaining A350s if we felt that it was an unsafe aeroplane. What we were concerned about was the condition of the A350-1000 and Airbus had to fix it. We came to an amicable settlement which is win-win for both sides.”

Qatar Airways is back in the Airbus orderbook as its remaining 23 A350-1000s and 50 A321neo orders have been reinstated after being cancelled by the manufacturer.

“We lost our original delivery slots on both the A321neo and the A350, and this was of course part of our amicable settlement with Airbus,” says Al Baker. The remaining 18 A350s will come from 2025 onwards, he added.

The carrier was a launch customer in 2013 for Boeing’s much delayed 777-9 and is hoping to receive its first units in 2025. “If the certification process is expedited, we could get it in the early part of 2025 instead of the second half of 2025, but it’s all wait and see,” says Al Baker.

With 18 A350-1000s, 60 777-9s, and 18 787-9s in the pipeline plus 25 737-10s and the A321neos, and a young fleet, Al Baker does not feel under pressure to boost its orderbook between now and the end of the decade.  

What does concern him is the manufacturers meeting delivery targets.  “There is a lot of pressure on the supply chain, and I think the Covid pandemic really destroyed the supply chain of both the aircraft manufacturers. And I don’t see how this will be coming back to what it used to be before Covid in the foreseeable future,” he said.  But clearly he is well placed with plenty of confirmed orders.

www.qatarairways.com

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