Taking
on allegations by three major U.S. airlines that Gulf carriers enjoy subsidies
that violate open-skies agreements, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al Baker said that
U.S. airlines provide “crap service” and have launched their attack because
they can’t compete with the high quality of service Qatar and other Gulf
carriers provide.
Al Baker pointed out that no U.S. carrier offers any service
to Doha, the capital city of Qatar, and that U.S. carriers offer limited
service to the Gulf carriers’ main markets — the Middle East, India and other South
Asian nations, and Africa. They choose to focus on secure markets such as
Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean rather than taking risks in emerging
markets, he said.
“There is huge growth in places where they don’t operate,”
he said.
Akbar al Baker
And, he said, U.S. airlines are routing what passengers they
do have in emerging markets through their European partners, forcing these
customers to travel through congested airports and subjecting them to far
longer connecting times. He said U.S.
carriers are waging a proxy fight for their European alliance partners.
While Delta, American and United want a cap on the growth of
Gulf carriers in the U.S., Al Baker said that Qatar Airways is being pursued by
U.S. airport executives who want to expand or add Qatar’s service.
U.S. carriers are crying foul about subsidies, he said, but
ignoring that in many parts of the world, Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures are
viewed as a form of state subsidy. In response to one question, he said that
post-9/11, U.S. airlines received $15 billion in subsidies —$5 billion in cash
and $10 billion in loan guarantees.
When asked whether Qatar would open its books, he said that
would be a decision in the short term to be made by Qatar’s owner, the state-owned
Qatar Investment Authority. Long-term, he said the airline would open its books
for its IPO, saying it would “happen in
the not-too-distant future.”
Meanwhile, he said, Qatar’s finances are so sound that banks
are “climbing over each other to finance our planes.”
Al Baker said U.S. carriers are tightly controlling capacity
in their home markets to keep prices high, enjoying record profits of 10% to 15%,
and cutting international capacity. They’re on attack, he said, “because they
are making more profits and are greedy.”
“The U.S. government should reject the groundless claims of
harm and recognize that the [open skies] agreement delivers key consumer
benefits,” he said. “Claims of subsidy are a transparent attempt to block our
high-quality service, with which the U.S. carriers cannot compete.”