![Qatar Airways [Getty]](https://www.newarab.com/sites/default/files/media/images/9CE3D7F2-9545-4B83-A60E-1920B20477F6.jpg "Qatar Airways [Getty]")
Qatar Airways won't cut flights to US despite slump
Qatar Airways won't cut flights to US despite slump
The CEO of one of the Middle East’s largest carriers said Monday passenger numbers to the United States have dipped slightly over fears by some Muslim passengers
3 min read
Qatar Airways will not cut flights to US, said its CEO [Getty]
The CEO of one of the Middle East’s largest carriers said on Monday passenger numbers to the United States have dipped slightly over fears by some Muslim passengers that their visas may be rejected upon arrival, but expressed confidence in President Donald Trump as a “very good businessman.”
Speaking to reporters at the Arabian Travel Market convention in Dubai, al-Baker said Qatar Airways is planning to launch a new route to San Francisco and will fly to Las Vegas next year. The airline currently flies to more than a dozen US cities.
A pressure group called The Partnership for Open and Fair Skies — which includes American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines — said the planned San Francisco expansion represents “another subsidised route into the United States.”
“Qatar Airways receives billions of dollars in illegal subsidies from its government in order to fly to our country and trash American jobs,” alleged the group’s spokesperson Jill Zuckman in a statement.
Al-Baker, however, expressed hope that Trump would resist pressure from the three American carriers to block aggressive expansion into the US market by Gulf-based carriers.
“I have repeatedly mentioned that President Trump is a very wise individual and a very good businessman, and I don’t think that he will buy into bullying by the three American carriers,” he said.
The blunt and plain-spoken CEO described the US competition as “wicked” for the way their passengers are treated and said they operate in cities where they “can swindle their customers.”
In a further dig, al-Baker quipped that if a flight was full, he would travel on a jump seat where cabin crew often sit because the airline’s policy is not to remove passengers. He was referring to an incident in which a United Airlines passenger was filmed being dragged off an airplane by airport security officers on an overbooked flight.
“We would never offload a passenger in Qatar Airways even if it is the CEO of the airline that wants to travel,” he said. “We would not drag out people out of an airplane.”
He said Qatar Airways has plans to expand to 26 new global destinations, adding: “The United States is not the entire world.”
The airline, he said, also has plans to apply with Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund for a license to operate a new domestic Indian carrier.
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