Qatar Air may boycott a gathering of fellow Oneworld members in London next month amid a simmering spat with partners in the marketing alliance. The Persian Gulf carrier hasn’t decided whether to attend the event on Feb. 1, CEO Akbar Al Baker said Tuesday, adding that he has been asked to provide “an opportunity to see how they can resolve the impasse.” Al Baker renewed a threat to abandon Oneworld in November, citing opposition from ally Qantas to his company’s expansion in Australia. Qatar Air has also had a long-running feud with American Airlines, which joined with other US carriers to argue that its partner was among Mideast airlines to benefit from illegal state aid. The London gathering will mark Oneworld’s 20th anniversary and herald a “radical transformation” of the alliance, according to media invitations emailed on Monday. The event will be led by the heads of Oneworld’s four founding partners, IAG, Cathay Pacific, American Airlines and Qantas, with six other full members also attending. Absent from the list were Qatar Air, Latam Airlines and Royal Jordanian. Qatar has stakes in British Airways-owner IAG, Latam and Cathay, holdings Al Baker has said mean it doesn’t need Oneworld, even if those carriers stay in the alliance.<br/>
oneworld
Qatar Airways will not buy a stake in Jet Airways as a substantial portion of the debt-laden Indian carrier is held by Etihad Airways, whose owner Abu Dhabi is an "enemy" of Qatar, its CEO Akbar al-Baker said Tuesday. Abu Dhabi is part of the United Arab Emirates that cut ties with Qatar in 2017 over accusations of supporting terrorism. Doha denies the charges. The UAE, together with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain have banned Qatar Airways since June of that year as part of the dispute. "We would definitely look at it (Jet Airways) if a 24% stake was not held by Etihad," al-Baker said. "How can I take a stake in an airline which is owned by our adversary?" Etihad plans to hike its stake in Jet to help the Indian carrier with its financial woes, a person close to the Abu Dhabi carrier said Monday. Al-Baker said Qatar Airways would be "delighted" to take a stake in IndiGo, the largest airline in India - home to the world's fastest growing aviation market. The Qatari airline has previously expressed an interest in investing in IndiGo, owned by InterGlobe Aviation. "But not in an airline where substantial ownership is by the enemy of my country," he said, referring to Jet.<br/>
HoCathay Pacific Airways reported a decrease in load factor for both passenger and cargo for December 2018, although the carrier said demand was healthy. Business-class demand remained strong in December, driven by premium leisure travel over the holiday period, the airline said. Economy class yields were improved. The peak cargo season leading up to Christmas was also strong, easing off toward the end of the month. Passenger traffic rose 4.9% year-on-year (YOY) for the month, with capacity up by 5.8% and load factor dropping 0.8 points to 83.8%. Full-year traffic increased 3.1% YOY, and capacity rose 3.5%. Load factor was down by 0.3 points to 84.1% for 2018. Cargo traffic was down by 5.9% YOY in December, with capacity flat. <br/>
Finnair will launch 2X-weekly Helsinki-Sapporo (Japan) seasonal service, from Dec. 15, 2019 through March 27, 2020. Sapporo will be Finnair’s fifth destination in Japan, in addition to Tokyo Narita, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. “Japan is a key market for us … Finnair is the only European airline to fly a scheduled route to Sapporo. And with five key Japanese cities in our network, we are now the largest European carrier flying to Japan,” Finnair SVP-network and resource management Christian Lesjak said. The carrier will also launch a weekly seasonal Airbus A350-900 Helsinki-Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) service, from Dec. 13, 2019 to March 27, 2020. Finnair also flies once a week to Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) during the winter season. Finnair will also increase flights from Helsinki to Hong Kong during winter 2019/2020, with double daily flights to Hong Kong continuing from the summer 2019 season throughout the winter season.<br/>