Daily Memo: Akbar Al Baker’s Departure Marks A Break For Airline Industry

On Feb. 1, 2023, it was finally over. Qatar Airways and Airbus announced a settlement of their unprecedented legal dispute. The airline had sued the manufacturer over surface degradation issues on many of the carrier’s Airbus A350s. 

Similar issues had been seen by other airlines and were dealt with quietly. Not in this case. Qatar Airways decided to stop taking more A350s and brought the case in front of a London court. The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority grounded the affected aircraft. More escalation? Impossible.

As it turned out, the dispute was the last public drama of Akbar Al Baker's exciting 27 years as CEO of the airline. Eight months later, the airline announced “the appointment of a new group chief executive," frankly, someone even insiders did not know: Badr Mohammed Al Meer, so far chief operating officer of Doha’s Hamad International Airport. In other words: Al Baker will be leaving very soon. The change will become effective on Nov. 5.

Al Baker, 62, is the longest-lasting current CEO of a major airline. It was also him who made Qatar Airways into a major airline in the first place, having taken it over with only a few aircraft in its fleet. Al Baker turned Qatar into a second Emirates—similar, but different. The airline is operating a large hub connecting long-haul services to long-haul. 

Unlike Emirates, it also has a narrowbody fleet and is a member of one of the global alliances, Oneworld, and has stakes in several carriers abroad—among them Cathay Pacific, China Southern Airlines, International Airlines Group and LATAM Airlines.

Qatar Airways' status of one of the most important buyers of aircraft, connected with its shareholdings, made Al Baker one of the most powerful figures in the industry. His departure likely marks the beginning of fundamental change for the airline.

According to industry sources, Al Baker left voluntarily, having initially considered staying on for some more years. To the end, Al Baker personally oversaw essentially everything of relevance at Qatar Airways. When his airline hosted the IATA annual general assembly in 2014, he would personally drive CEOs of other airlines around in a golf cart through the airport terminal, making sure they arrived at their gates comfortably in the middle of the night. A few days before, he had broken his arm in a car accident. But he simply would not delegate anything.

In Toulouse, key Airbus executives do not to this day understand how things went so badly wrong with Al Baker after the first paint deficiencies were discovered. But in the end, a settlement was good for all sides. After all, an airline the size of Qatar Airways cannot operate permanently without a relationship with one of the two big airplane manufacturers.

Subtlety was never Al Baker's thing, as many others in the industry including Boeing and numerous airline colleagues can recollect. When Al Baker hosted another IATA meeting in 2022, he stated in some of his speeches that many airlines let their customers down during the pandemic—not so Qatar Airways, of course. Many colleagues were outraged that he misused the stage he was given by the association in such a way. Some of his peers simply stood up and left. Emirates Airline President Tim Clark stopped talking with him some time ago.

Al Baker was often brutally frank. When asked at an IATA event whether a woman could do his job, he said no. A woman could not do his job, he said, because his job was so difficult. That did not go down well, to put it mildly. He later clarified that he didn't believe a woman could not do his job and pointed out that "Qatar Airways firmly believes in gender equality."

But while he had his share of critics, many also admired his achievements.

Following the departure of such a powerful figure, Qatar Airways will have to reinvent itself. A new corporate governance has to be established—along with a management team that is more empowered, with CEO Al Meer at the top. His experience as an airport manager will help, but the key will be the evolution of the airline following the departure of a larger than life CEO.

What is unlikely to change is Qatar Airways' positioning as a major player in the industry—this mandate given by its government has not wavered.