Emerging Giant

Ambitious Qatar Airways may have been ostracised by its neighbours, and banned from their airspace over allegations Doha is supporting terrorism, but the carrier isn’t slowing down on expansion plans. In fact, it is picking up the pace and splashing out on investments in other airlines.

He is a famously fractious individual not slow to speak his mind and even the fact his airline is heading for a loss in its current financial year hasn’t slowed down Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar al Baker. With Qatar’s closest neighbours having closed their skies to his jets, under attack from US rivals for allegedly profiting through government subsidies and facing an unprecedented dip in fortunes currently hitting all the Gulf carriers, Qatar has put its foot on the Accelerator.

Al Baker is launching new flights at breakneck pace, continuing to spend billions on new aircraft to expand the fleet and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, seemingly pushing ahead with a strategy that cost nearby Abu Dhabi flag Etihad Airways dearly: investing in other airlines around the globe. His latest spend, in November, was to fork out US$662 million for a 9.61 per cent stake in Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways. This is apparently aimed at allowing the Qatari carrier to reach deeper into Asia’s booming traffic Numbers.