Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) is in talks with Airbus and Boeing to defer deliveries of its ordered aircraft but has vowed to eventually take all of them and not seek cancellations, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker told the South China Morning Post.

"We are in negotiation with them [the OEMs], so I don't want to talk about this, but yes it will be deferred for several years," Al Baker said.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the Qatari airline has firm orders for 165 aircraft directly from the manufacturers, including forty A321-200neo, ten A321neo(LR)s, twenty-seven A350-1000s, five B777-Fs, ten B777-8s, fifty B777-9s, and twenty-three B787-9s.

Al Baker did not provide any information about which aircraft the carrier was seeking to defer and until when.

He added that the airline was considering cargo operations as an important source of revenue for the months to come given the high level of demand, significantly outpacing the forecasted recovery of the passenger market.

"There is a huge demand for cargo, not only from China but … from all over the world. The cargo demand will last for the foreseeable future because there will always be a big demand for cargo ... with all the airlines that are now grounding aeroplanes," Al Baker underlined.

He admitted, however, that while cargo will be a substantial part of the airline's revenues for at least the next year and a half, it will not compensate for the revenues lost due to the collapse of the passenger market.

Qatar Airways has a sizeable cargo unit with twenty-one B777-F(s), five A330-200Fs, and two B747-8(F)s.

Despite the difficulties, Al Baker said that Qatar Airways Group was committed to its investment in Cathay Pacific (CX, Hong Kong International) and was willing to inject additional capital into the Hong Kong's carrier if possible. Qatar currently holds a 9.99% stake in Cathay Pacific.

"Cathay is a well-established company, and as a shareholder, if Cathay Pacific were to approach us for an equity injection, we will definitely support them," Al Baker said.