Hassan Abdulrahman Al Ibrahim (second left), Acting CEO, Qatar Tourism Authority, addressing a panel discussion at the IPEC. Others from left are, Moderator Nadim Al Mallah of Al Jazeera TV; Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO, Qatar Airways; Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari, C
DOHA: The firm expansion plans of Qatar Airways have demonstrated that the airline has remain unaffected by the illegal siege imposed by the blockading countries. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said yesterday that Qatar Airways Cargo became the world’s largest cargo operator this year.
He was addressing key government, economic and business leaders on the opening day of the International Products Exhibition and Conference (IPEC) 2018.
“Because of our business as usual attitude, during illegal blockade through our continued planned expansions route and strategic investment, Qatar Airways Cargo was recently named the world’s largest cargo operator during this year,” Al Baker said. He added that the airline has added 24 new destination since the start of the blockade showing that siege countries failed to slow down Qatar Airways expansion.
About future expansion plans, he said that Qatar airways plans to increase its network to over 250 destinations by 2022.
“Qatar Airways is living illustration of growth prosperity and courageous attitude demonstrated by Qatar under the leadership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani” said Al Baker.
Delivering a speech on topic ‘Connecting Qatar to new countries with their state of the art airline’, Al Baker said: “We are proud to play a major role in building and protecting Qatar’s future prosperity. Qatar Airways continues its growth and expansion plans as it has launched 24 new destinations since the start of the illegal blockade, plus increasing the frequency of flights and upgrading the size of aircraft on many existing routes,”
With its business as usual approach to the blockade, the airline also continued to invest in sports sponsorships, which it sees as the ideal platform for bringing people together from all corners of the globe. “We promote Qatar and our brand through many prominent and prestigious international sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup of which we are the major sponsor. By promoting Qatar to the world as a tourism and stopover destination through our subsidiaries, we have experienced a 39 per cent increase in the number of stopover passengers”.
“Through our commitment to excellence, we bring Qatar to the world, hoping to earn the right to bring the world to Qatar, and our strategy is working,” he added.
Al Baker said that US sanctions on Iran will not impact Qatar Airways’ flights to the Islamic republic.
“Aviation is not a sanctioned industry, Qatar Airways will continue to operate into the cities we are currently operating in Iran,” he said replying to a question. “Our flights to Iran will not be affected,” he added.
