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The chief executive of Qatar Airways has poured cold water on hopes of a speedy recovery of aviation and warned of the need for greater cooperation in creating vaccine passports to save the industry.
“I think that the recovery of aviation will not take place over a fairly long period of time. . . I don’t see that the worst is over yet, “said Akbar Al Baker in an interview.
The Qatar executive got a more pessimistic tone than the heads of many major European and American airlines, which predict a rise in flight in the coming months.
Heads of US airlines have said the worst impact of the crisis had happened, while in Europe there are hopes for a resurgence of travel once border restrictions are eased.
But Al Baker believes vaccines are just an “uninterrupted” solution because it is not yet known how long they offer protection against Covid-19.
The UK could end the fourth, fifth or sixth wave of cases after opening its borders to international travel, he warned.
Qatar Airways is one of the fastest growing Gulf airlines in the last 30 years, thanks to the deep pockets of its owners to connect points around the world through its central airports in the Middle East.
But they depend on long-haul travel, which is expected to recover more slowly than domestic and short-haul regional flights. Qatar is currently on the “red list” of UK countries, which means direct flights are banned.
Al Baker urged countries and agencies such as the World Health Organization to work more closely to develop vaccine passports.
“All countries produce their own applications, their protocols, and that in the end won’t work,” he said.
Several digital health passes are being developed, including the travel pass of the Iata group of airlines, with which Qatar Airways participates.
The applications allow passengers to demonstrate a vaccine or a negative test when traveling, but no agreement has been reached on a set of global standards for the technology.
“These travel passports are only as good as the system you will implement there. If each country has a different protocol, each country has a different system, each country has a different requirement, it confuses passengers and confuses airlines, ”he said.
Al Baker’s influence extends far beyond the Middle East. Qatar Airways is the largest shareholder of the owner of British Airways IAG, and is also a member of Heathrow’s board of directors thanks to the participation of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund in the UK’s largest airport.
He has no plans to increase stake in IAG, but asked BA’s new chief executive Sean Doyle to focus on customer service.
“As a shareholder, we have made it very clear that we want British Airways and other IAG Group airlines to provide a high level of products and services to our customers because we want to be the strongest airline in Europe,” he said.
BA responded: “As we emerge from the pandemic, we focus on providing excellence to our customers. . . This joins the investment in areas that we know are worth our customers, including more fuel-efficient aircraft, new cabins and seats, new dining experiences, new lounges and WiFi on board.
The airline wasted under former chief Alex Cruz when it gained a reputation for cutting costs, he said. “You shouldn’t have a fine airline like British Airways. . . this was, you know, the favorite airline in the world, as far as it went, ”he said.
State-owned Qatar Airways benefited from a nearly $ 2 billion government support package after losing about the same amount of money in the twelve months to March 2020, before the worst impact of Covid.
Driven by cargo, the airline is flying approximately 70% of its normal schedule. Aircraft, on average, are only around 40%, but the crisis has allowed the airline to “establish our brand very strongly,” he said.
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