DOHA: About a month into his tenure as Qatar Airways Group’s chief executive officer (CEO), Hamad Al-Khater made certain his first overseas trip took him to the French headquarters of planemaker Airbus SE.
The companies have had a notoriously contentious relationship in recent years, but Al-Khater described his January meeting with planemaker CEO Guillaume Faury in Toulouse as “brilliant” and “fantastic.”
Faury then accompanied German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to Qatar a couple of weeks ago, and the two corporate heads had a follow-up lunch there.
“Airbus is a long-standing partner, they’ve been with us since the beginning,” Al-Khater, 40, said in his first interview since being appointed to the top job in December. “They’ve demonstrated that commitment that they’ll be able to deliver on the promises.”
The European manufacturer’s planes were among the first to fly for Qatar Airways, and they now comprise about half of its fleet.
The carrier has more than 60 jets on order and expects deliveries of additional widebody A350 and the narrowbody A321LR this year – a timeline discussed during the meetings in Toulouse.
The arrangement between the two companies hasn’t always been smooth.
In 2022, the two sides faced off over what the carrier called flaking paint on its A350 jetliners, a defect Airbus said wasn’t its fault. The dispute escalated to a point where Airbus retaliated by cancelling Qatar’s orders for the sold-out A321 model.
It even drew in French President Emmanuel Macron, who discussed the situation with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Hamad al-Thani during a visit to Doha.
Then after a settlement in 2023, the A321 orders were reinstated, though Qatar hasn’t ordered additional Airbus jets since, instead placing a mammoth deal last year with archrival Boeing Co.
Qatar Airways expects the first batch of the A321 to arrive in the fourth quarter, expanding its options for secondary cities in Europe and emerging ones in China.
Al-Khater said the narrowbodies should have new configurations in the business and economy cabins.
“It’s going to be a game changer from my network perspective, which really opens up the landscape for us,” Al-Khater said during an hour-plus interview at company headquarters in Doha.
When it comes to the Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc engines fitted on the A350-1000s, the airline is confident in the manufacturer’s ability to meet the “slightly acute challenge” with the XWB-97 variant, Al-Khater said.
The larger turbine has received scathing criticism from Emirates President Tim Clark, who has faulted Rolls-Royce for subpar durability and then refused to order Airbus’s largest production plane.
Rolls-Royce officials visited the Qatari capital recently to assure the carrier.
“There’s more work to be done on that front,” Al-Khater said. “We’re in a safe space as Qatar Airways.”
The new CEO is the airline’s second in three years. Al-Khater sees growth coming from “insatiable” India, Australia, Africa and the surrounding Gulf states.
“Harmonising” and refreshing the existing fleet tops Al-Khater’s agenda.
Planes have an average age of just 10 years, so older aircraft remain outliers. Those will be phased out as Qatar Airways ramps up to nearly 400 jets by 2040.
“At this stage in time, it’s a continuous evaluation of our fleet order,” Al-Khater said. — Bloomberg
