Qatar’s Al Baker Admits to Brinkmanship Leading to 777X Talks | Aviation International News

Qatar’s Al Baker Admits to Brinkmanship Leading to 777X Talks

At last month’s Dubai Airshow, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker offered insights into some of the machinations and brinkmanship that shape aircraft purchase negotiations.

By Peter Shaw-Smith • Contributor - Middle East

December 9, 2013

Keen to show his airline can operate as a profitable carrier amid assertions that it survives on the largesse of its government benefactors, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker offered revealing insights at last month’s Dubai Airshow into some of the internal machinations and brinkmanship that shape aircraft purchase negotiations. The colorful and sometimes controversial Al Baker played coy about his interest in the 777X while fully intending to engage Boeing in serious negotiations that eventually led to a blockbuster sale. In fact, he confessed to feigning disinterest in the airplane in an effort to gain more flexibility from Boeing in the talks, during which his airline partnered for the first time with Emirates Airline to secure a part of the world’s biggest ever single launch order.

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