Qatar Airways is interested in raising its stake in Cathay Pacific Airways, provided the move doesn’t “disrupt” the holdings of the top two major investors, Swire Group and Air China, the carrier’s CE Akbar Al Baker said. The airline, which announced buying almost 10% of Cathay in November in a bid to gain a foothold in East Asia, wants to bolster its strategic relations with Cathay, Al Baker said Thursday. Qatar Air currently owns 9.9% of Cathay, he said. “What happens in the future, of course, I cannot say because the aviation industry is very fluid at times,” Al Baker said. “At the moment, we have no intention to go over the stated goal that we already have in mind. We will not go beyond 10% mark in Cathay for the time being.” <br/>
oneworld
Qatar Airways CE Akbar Al Baker pledged to carry on adding routes in defiance of the Saudi Arabia-led isolation of its home country. While the carrier anticipates a “very negative year” in terms of earnings, the passenger tally should be close to what it was before the embargo, Al Baker said Thursday. The airline is opening new destinations to make up for the 19 lost in countries participating in the sanctions. “We are not going to slow down,” the CE said. “This is exactly what Qatar Airways wants to prove -- that the blockade is not going to have any negative impact on the airline vis-à-vis our growth.” Routes won’t be opened just to “show the flag” but to serve genuine demand, Al Baker said. People will be “very envious when they see how many new destinations we are announcing in order to defeat our adversaries,” he added. <br/>
Qantas' Dreamliner makes its international debut Friday between Melbourne and Los Angeles, and the plane promises to deliver insurance against any fuel price rises, says the airline's CE Alan Joyce. The Boeing 787-9 will fly the route 6 times a week, ahead of starting Perth to London services in March. ''The economics of this aircraft are so amazing that we could fly two of them tail to tail and it is still slightly lower on the current fuel price than an A380," Joyce said. ''It does dramatically help insulate you from higher fuel prices.'' While the Dreamliner entered service around the world 6 years ago, and Qantas had deferred its initial order, Joyce said his airline had made some big investments in other areas in the meantime. It was also cutting costs in its transformation programme. <br/>
The American Airline uniform crisis, a problem that has plagued AA and thousands of the carrier's employees for well over a year, remains a matter of serious concern. That was apparent at an employee town hall meeting in Dallas presided over by American Airlines CE Doug Parker and VP of flight service Jill Surdek. Twin Hill uniforms are believed to be tied to symptomatic reactions reported by thousands of AA flight attendants, pilots and gate agents. At Tuesday's crew meeting Surdek talked of the progress being made on obtaining new uniforms. She said more than 30 vendors had responded to a RFP put out when American decided to find a new uniform supplier. From those, 65 were recently selected as finalists. And Surdek said the company could name a new uniform supplier as early as next month. <br/>