DOHA QATAR Airways (QA) plans to more than double its US footprint to seven destinations, Chief Executive Akbar al Baker has said. The process gets underway in April.
“The airline’s number of US gateways will soon grow to seven, up from the three it flies to as of today,” Baker was quoted as saying by USA Today on Thursday.
The carrier announced it will embark on the new round of expansion in the US market in April with flights to Chicago O’Hare airport. At present QA flies to New York JFK, Washington Dulles and Houston Bush Intercontinental.
According to the newspaper, the three other destinations to which Qatar Airways plans to launch services are Atlanta, Detroit and Boston.
Though Baker declined to give a precise timetable, he did say: “It will be soon, because we plan to add 15 to 16 destinations to our network next year.” Asked if Qatar Airways was worried by the current turmoil at American Airlines (AA), its new partner, Baker told the newspaper he was not worried by the state of affairs at American, one of the anchor carriers in the Oneworld Alliance that Qatar Airways joined earlier this month in a splashy ceremony in New York.
“Not at all,” Baker quickly answered when asked whether American’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation and subsequent labour woes have given him reason to worry about the future of one of Qatar Airways’ newest strategic partners.
“I think it is just a restructuring of the cost base,” Baker said of American’s decision to file for bankruptcy protection.
“They should have done it a long time ago. But they are a very resilient airline. I am sure that my friend (and American CEO) Tom Horton is going to do a very good job in reshaping American for the next decades.” Asked about the prospect of American-US Airways merger, strongly championed by the latter, he said “I think a merger will only make them stronger. It will not make them weaker.” That’s true regardless of who might take control of American, he asserted. US Airways’ merger proposal calls for American’s name and headquarters to remain, but for its management to give way to the team currently in US Airways’ executive suite.
If such a merger comes to pass, Baker said, those are things “that they have to decide between them(selves).” “At the end of the day, whatever they will do, I’m sure they will do in the best interests of the shareholders and their passengers,” the Qatar Airways CEO said.
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