Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) is still evaluating its continued membership in Oneworld but sees a potential to stay if the other member airlines resolve their differences, Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker said at an alliance event in London.
"We will be here as long as we can speak together and see if we can resolve any issues and differences we have and only after that will we decide what happens," Al Baker was quoted as saying by Skift.
The Qatari carrier said last year that it was unhappy about the relationships between the alliance's largest members and saw them as competitive rather than collaborative. In particular, Qatar Airways took issue with American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) for leading the campaign accusing the Gulf carriers of receiving government subsidies and with Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) for protecting the Australian market and cooperating closely with Emirates (EK, Dubai International).
"It seems they don’t need the alliance because everybody is doing their own thing. Then what is the point of the alliance? In the alliance, the big guys are bullying the smaller ones. We will not allow that," Al Baker told the Gulf Times.
Al Baker was speaking at an event during which Oneworld unveiled a series of improvements focused on a better experience for passengers, such as plans to have a single mobile check-in platform for all alliance members and to open new branded lounges in 2019.
Qatar Airways said that if it chooses to leave Oneworld, it will then focus on developing cooperation with its equity partners. The Qatari group owns 21.4% of IAG International Airlines Group, 10% of LATAM Airlines Group, and 9.6% of Cathay Pacific (CX, Hong Kong International).
