Qatar Airways will keep growing despite Mideast spat, CE says

Qatar Airways' CE said Tuesday the carrier will post a loss this year because 4 other Arab countries have severed land, air and sea links with Qatar. Akbar al-Baker said the ban on the airline flying to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt since last summer has forced it to fly longer routes through Turkey and Iran, and has hit the company's bottom line, but not its expansion plans. "We have increased maintenance costs because we are flying longer routes, we have more fuel consumption, so the cost to the airline is rising and I have already stated that the airline will post a loss this year due to the blockade, but this doesn't mean that we are going to shrink," al-Baker said. "We will keep on expanding and growing the company." <br/>