Qatar Airways' outspoken CEO Akbar Al Baker resigns; made airline a global power
Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways' famously outspoken CEO, will resign from the airline, according to the airline.
Al Baker will leave Nov. 5, the carrier said, and will be replaced by Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, the current chief operating officer at Doha's Hamad International Airport.
The reason for the resignation or its timing was not immediately clear.
Al Baker, who has been at the airline's helm for nearly three decades, helped oversee its growth as a major global carrier comparable to Emirates, connecting regions across the world via its hub in Doha, Qatar (Al Baker is also the CEO of Hamad International Airport, which opened in 2014 and replaced the nearby Doha International Airport as Qatar's hub).
He also led Qatar's rise as a standard bearer of the premium passenger experience. Alongside a soft product — things like food, entertainment and bedding — that have been consistently ranked among the world's best for over a decade, Qatar helped pioneer the elevation of business class to effectively replace first.
In 2017, Qatar introduced its Qsuite business-class seat, the first suite-style business-class hard product with a closing door, and with layouts that could be configured to allow for a double bed or even walled-off family or work areas. Since then, numerous other airlines worldwide have followed suit by designing business-class seats with walls and sliding doors, including Delta Air Lines and JetBlue in the U.S.
Close to perfect: Qatar Qsuite on a 777-300ER from Doha to New York JFK
His time at the airline was not without head winds, however, with Al Baker navigating Qatar through a variety of challenges and spats.
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates imposed a blockade on Qatar amid a deterioration in diplomatic relations between the state of Qatar and the Arab League nations. The countries accused Qatar of aiding terrorist groups and destabilizing the region, in part by maintaining normal relations with Iran, which Qatar denied.
Among other restrictions, the blockade prohibited Qatar Airways from utilizing airspace above those countries, adding hours to some trips and necessitating those flights to burn more fuel to navigate around restricted areas. The airline was also forced to drop 18 destinations in the four countries from its network.
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The restrictions were lifted in January 2021 following a diplomatic resolution and the normalization of ties between the countries.
Also in the late 2010s, Qatar took a 49% ownership stake in Air Italy, a new Milan-based carrier that collapsed in 2020.
Amid the head winds, Al Baker also courted controversy throughout his time at the airline.
In 2018, he said that a woman could not succeed in his role as an airline CEO "because it is a very challenging position" before issuing an apology.
In the mid-2010s, U.S. airlines began criticizing the three major Middle East carriers, including Qatar, arguing that subsidies from their state owners allowed them to compete unfairly. Al Baker accused the airlines of "bullying tactics" and providing "crap" service compared to the Gulf airlines.
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In 2017, American Airlines ended its codeshare agreement with Qatar despite both airlines' memberships in the Oneworld alliance. A year later, Qatari and U.S. Department of State officials reached an agreement under which Qatar Airways would increase transparency into its finances, putting an end to the U.S. airlines' lobbying to penalize Qatar. American and Qatar restored their codeshare in 2020.
Also in 2017, Al Baker said that U.S. airline passengers were "served by grandmothers," boasting that "the average age of my cabin crew is only 26." Al Baker later apologized via a letter to the Association of Flight Attendants.
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Qatar came under fire in 2020 after more than a dozen women Australian women were pulled from a Qatar flight preparing to depart Doha and forcibly subjected to invasive gynecological exams after authorities found a newborn infant abandoned at the airport. Although the airline said it was the Qatari police that carried out the searches, rather than the airline, Al Baker this year described an Australian decision to block more Qatar flights in reaction to the episode "very unfair."
"We found it to be very unfair [for] our legitimate request to be not granted, especially at a time when we were so supportive of Australia," Al Baker told CNN in an interview, noting that the airline continued flights to Australia during the peak of the pandemic, carrying supplies and repatriating stranded citizens, even as Australian carrier Qantas remained grounded.
Al Baker also slammed critics of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, responding combatively to accusations that migrant workers were being mistreated in the lead-up to the tournament.
Nevertheless, Al Baker's outspoken and hard-charging approach has proven effective, navigating the airline through challenges like the blockade and the pandemic. It also helped bring resolutions to various disputes with manufacturers.
In the latest of these, Qatar sued Airbus in 2021 over an issue of flaking paint on some A350 aircraft, with Airbus retaliating by canceling an order for A321neo jets. The two parties settled earlier this year.
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