Qatar Airways CEO resigns after 27 years

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• Paul W says:

  24 Oct24 October 06:07

  Morning all! Asssuming the Tesco / Uber gift card offer is not available in store?

  • Rob says:

    24 Oct24 October 07:43

    Don’t know.

• Chris R says:

  24 Oct24 October 06:43

  By far the worst Hilton hotel that I’ve stayed at. Surprised the wear and tear, cleanliness and general standard of rooms, corridors and public spaces still allow it to qualify for the brand.

  • memesweeper says:

    24 Oct24 October 10:05

    If that’s the worst Hilton you’ve found you need to get out more 🤣

    It’s poor, but not so poor I wouldn’t go back, unlike some regional UK Hilton offerings. And often the cheapest not-terrible hotel in zone 2. It’s completing with some real dumps in the Paddington area, often asking the same price.

• John says:

  24 Oct24 October 07:07

  Easy to be a CEO of an airline where the cost of oil is practically free compared to other carriers

  • James says:

    24 Oct24 October 08:03

    Its also easy when you are 34

  • Maharoof Alambath says:

    24 Oct24 October 08:09

    All the credit goes to Mr. A. Y. Al-Baker for the Success of QR.

    • AndyC says:

      24 Oct24 October 09:36

      …not, of course, forgetting the hard-working staff…

  • JDB says:

    24 Oct24 October 08:56

    It’s never easy to be the CEO of an airline and some cheap aviation fuel doesn’t change that, but ME airlines, TK and even US airlines do have the most extraordinary structural advantages over European legacy carriers which impacts profitability and the services they can offer.

    • Milos says:

      24 Oct24 October 09:39

      Can you give a structural advantage as an example?

      • blenz101 says:

        24 Oct24 October 11:18

        You can put all your crews in cheap staff accommodation at your home base. You can recruit from anywhere in the world. Low base salaries are competitive due to tax free earnings. No pension liabilities.

        • Rob says:

          24 Oct24 October 12:51

          All peanuts compared to the luck of sitting in the middle of the new world order (as the UK performed the same role last century) and being able to operate 24/7.

      • JDB says:

        24 Oct24 October 13:56

        In addition to those structural advantages cited by @blenz101 (and the employment cost advantage is huge) there are significant direct and indirect government subsidies, for ME airlines/TK uncongested airport facilities that give the airlines control and don’t have to be fully paid for, costly 261 legislation applying to limited number of flights. In the US airlines have not only been heavily subsidised, but have been able to shed huge historic liabilities though various bankruptcies and consolidated such that the US market has very high fares post deregulation whereas European ‘flag carrier’ competitors have all the LCCs killing their European business to a degree where they just can’t make money and long haul has big pressures from competitors that are subsidised and/or have fundamentally lower cost bases at a level they could never achieve. The bankruptcies of many European flag carriers have only helped at the margin.

      • ken says:

        24 Oct24 October 13:58

        1) Ideally situated, in a booming area.
        2) No legacy final pension liabilities.
        3) Low cost of capital
        4) A vastly wealthy country that can take a 10 year view not 10 months.
        5) Cheap & young crew
        6) Nice new fuel efficient fleet
        7) Want a new airport ? Will happen
        8) In the end can if they wish lose almost unlimited money as its about soft power rather than gouging every last cent.

        • Rob says:

          24 Oct24 October 15:33

          Except it doesn’t lose money.

  • 747 says:

    25 Oct25 October 16:17

    BA has a monopoly position at the most congested airport in the highest yielding city in the world. Guess the BA job is easy too

• AlanC says:

  24 Oct24 October 07:20

  Partly o/t. Not on the scale of Olympia but the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton is expanding. Floor one which houses the bar, restaurant, executive lounge and meeting rooms are moving to the ground floor. The vacated space being turned into an extra floor of rooms.

• Nick says:

  24 Oct24 October 07:31

  He’ll be back. Like MOL he won’t be able to keep away!

• daveinitalia says:

  24 Oct24 October 07:40

  I stayed in the Hilton Olympia a few times in 2019 and a couple of things stood out, the rooms were very dated but the executive lounge (albeit a bit tight with the tables close together) had a decent selection of food. Then in 2022 I noticed the hotel no longer mentioned the lounge so I asked them if it had been closed as a Covid casualty and they claimed that it had always been the intention to close it in 2020 due to lack of space. Hopefully when they expand they find place for a new lounge.

  Another lounge I’ll miss is the Hilton Ageas Bowl.

  • Ben says:

    24 Oct24 October 08:26

    There are old and also newly-ish renovated “Premium” rooms, which they kindly upgrade gold/diamond to.

    The exec lounge was indeed tiny; I thought the food and bev was pathetic so the room is now just that, an empty room. Clearly
    cost cutting on something they spent not much on anyway.

    The Olympia development is also getting a new full size London theatre, which is great news.

    • daveinitalia says:

      24 Oct24 October 13:17

      The food was good when I stayed there – in Bournemouth (where I spent a lot of time in 2019) was chicken wings most days, occasionally chicken strips or duck spring rolls. When I stayed in Olympia they had better hot options, fish and chips was on the lounge buffet one day. Maybe I was just lucky

• Jumpers says:

  24 Oct24 October 07:42

  Can’t see an option to pay for those gift cards with a tesco gift card, is that correct?

  • Kevin C says:

    24 Oct24 October 12:52

    Tesco won’t let you buy third party gift cards with their gift cards.

    They also don’t let you use most Tesco E-cards online for reasons I’ve never understood.

• LittleNick says:

  24 Oct24 October 07:57

  Anyone have any idea why Al Baker is leaving? Seems a bit abrupt all of a sudden unless it just wasn’t announced before as notice periods seems short?

  • Rhys says:

    24 Oct24 October 08:13

    Yes, most airline CEOs don’t depart with 2 week’s notice. Clearly something else going on, although unclear what.

    • Opus says:

      24 Oct24 October 08:21

      It is apparently customary in the Middle East to announce retirement on the day of effect. Giving notice two weeks before and even a farewell press release is apparently a good thing. Moreover he’s taking a special adviser role to the PM

    • AndyC says:

      24 Oct24 October 09:38

      *weeks’😬

    • mkcol says:

      24 Oct24 October 15:22

      I’ve been told by someone in Doha that this isn’t new news, just a new announcement.

      Is off to be a consultant to the PM.

      • Rob says:

        24 Oct24 October 15:32

        It’s new news. It would have got out if it wasn’t. Pretty sure he won’t be consulting to the PM either (if only because I’m sure he was already doing that).

        • Ang says:

          24 Oct24 October 16:26

          Word on the street from Doha is that Al Baker has been refusing to let go for a few years. The people in charge have been discussing for a few years and finally put their foot down for him to go.

          The new guy is a close associate of the ruler and obviously has Wasta (good connections).

          I’m assuming the (relatively) new emir has been keen to reshuffle his dad’s placements in line with his vision for Qatar and its future.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    24 Oct24 October 08:28

    He’s also no longer chairman of Qatar Tourism as of yesterday as well

    Can he still remain as chairman of One World if he’s not actually running an airline?

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