Al Baker Defiant as Qatar Takes First Boeing 747-8 | Aviation International News

Al Baker Defiant as Qatar Takes First Boeing 747-8

Airline’s cargo business grows by 160-percent following institution of travel bans by four neighboring countries

By Gregory Polek • Senior Editor

September 25, 2017

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker struck a defiant tone in his commentary at Boeing’s delivery center in Seattle just before a September 25 ceremony to celebrate delivery of his airline’s first Boeing 747-8F freighter, calling the blockade of Qatar by its Persian Gulf neighbors an “illegal act” that nevertheless has served to boost the carrier’s cargo business. Sitting with Boeing vice chairman Ray Conner and Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Kevin McAllister, Al Baker did acknowledge that the move by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt to sever diplomatic relations and impose travel bans in June have cut Qatar Airways’s passenger traffic volumes by 10 percent. However, he expressed confidence that aggressive expansion outside those four countries would restore the airline’s traffic volumes to pre-blockade levels by the end of the year.

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