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Satyendra Pathak
Doha
The illegal siege imposed on Qatar has failed to affect the growth of Qatar Airways (QA), its Group Chief Executive said on Monday.
"The blockading countries are not the end of the world. We have many more countries to operate. We have identified many destinations to launch our services. Despite the crisis, QA never compromised with its world-class services to customers," Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar al Baker told media persons in Doha on Monday.
"Although we lost 19 routes after the siege, we made it up by adding 11 new routes. We are on course to add 26 new routes by the end of this year," he said.
Despite the blockade, the airline has continued with its ambitious expansion plans and growth strategy to welcome more passengers on board.
Baker said Qatar Airways will take the delivery of first Airbus A350-1000 next month.
"The delivery has been delayed until February due to the complex seat configuration of the airline's 'Qsuite' business class," Baker said.
Qatar Airways is the launch customer of Airbus' largest twin-engined passenger jet.
He said installing the 'Qsuite' business class was taking longer than expected and the aircraft was still being fitted out in Toulouse, where Airbus is based.
Though the airline had taken ownership of the aircraft late last year, Baker said, it will be finally delivered once all the fittings are done.
Qatar Airways was named Airline of the Year by the prestigious '2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards'. It also got 'Best Airline in the Middle East', 'World's Best Business Class' and 'World's Best First Class Airline Lounge' awards.
"We should not forget that all these recognitions came during the siege period," he said.
Qatar Airways is not only expanding, but also helping its allies in the US in creating the much required job opportunities, he said.
"At a time when US needed jobs, we supported them with large orders to the country' plane manufacturing company Boeing," he said.
On QA buying stakes in Air India and Pakistan International Airlines, Baker said Qatar Airways is not interested at the moment.
