Interview: we chat with Badr Al-Meer, the new CEO of Qatar Airways

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• BJ says:

  24 Jul24 July 06:05

  A pity it wasn’t 1-2-1, such woeful questions, must have been very frustrating.

• Marcw says:

  24 Jul24 July 06:09

  From my last experience flying QSuite, service is mediocre – feels like Qatar has cabin-crew retention problems. They should really focus on the soft product if they want to keep their dates high.

  • Charles Martel says:

    24 Jul24 July 06:40

    Apparently they don’t treat their staff very well.

    • Rob says:

      24 Jul24 July 07:00

      This is changing. Badr seems very focused on this.

    • Cranzle says:

      24 Jul24 July 07:12

      BA cabin crew have they same complaint

    • Jonathan says:

      24 Jul24 July 09:54

      Apparently lots of people choose to work for the likes of Emirates and quite happily run away from QR. How working environment is like with those at Etihad, hard to know, either way, apparently QR aren’t at all great to their cabin crew…
      Or have got major improvements they need to concentrate on

• Phil says:

  24 Jul24 July 07:22

  What happened to the “exclusive 1-2-1 chat (well, 2-2-1!)”, or is that coming later?

  • Rob says:

    24 Jul24 July 08:53

    Did it, not sure if we’ll run it or not. A large amount was ‘you can’t write this but I’ll tell you that …..’. Need to see what remains when all those bits are wiped.

    • ADS says:

      24 Jul24 July 15:07

      I quote her in my first line!

• Tom says:

  24 Jul24 July 07:28

  He seems pretty sensible. I’ve never met either, but my assumption is Al Baker was ultimately politely moved on since the ego was clearly starting to get in the way of doing the job and putting QR at risk, Al-Meer seems very much the opposite. The utterly bizarre decision to publicly criticise Airbus and escalate a dispute QR can’t ‘win’ because Al Baker felt somehow ‘wronged’ at the time when Airbus is almost the monopoly supplier with more market power than any time in history being a case in point.

• Mikeact says:

  24 Jul24 July 07:54

  Not impressed, if that was the total Q&A.

  • Rob says:

    24 Jul24 July 08:47

    I get a feeling you’ve never actually been to a press event and have no idea what the ‘form’ is.

    • Andy says:

      24 Jul24 July 09:26

      Yes – these aren’t press conferences, so we shouldn’t expect difficult questions to be asked or unrehearsed answers to be given. Middle Eastern airlines – and, as we know, the Middle East more generally stage-manages press interaction, if they allow it at all. These ‘audience with the chief’ events are done to provide advertorial soundbite content, which both sides are happy to play along with. ‘Form’ indeed.

  • Dubious says:

    24 Jul24 July 09:14

    I think it does have some interesting insights (especially the bits in bold).

    I do always find it a slightly weird perspective when airline officials talk about the market absorbing capacity….it feels a bit like the tail wagging the dog. I’d hope the perspective by the planners is more proactive – with ‘capacity growing in line with demand’…

  • Rhys says:

    24 Jul24 July 10:06

    These are press conferences, not Paxman on Newsnight!

  • Lady London says:

    24 Jul24 July 20:55

    Yes but a lot less “write down what I say on the topics I have something to say to you on” than the last similar format interview with a Qatar CEO.

    The worst one of that ilk that we’ve had being ISTR the interview with was it Christina?, a now former head of TAP. A distinct lack of questions particularly given the background at the time of TAP reported to completely refuse to help passengers on irrops or even to communicate about valid EU261 claims for these and apparently not paying them as a matter of policy.

• mark says:

  24 Jul24 July 09:35

  “the strategy, of course, is to be the best and most profitable airline in the world”

  This is not a strategy, it’s a mission statement.

  • Dubious says:

    25 Jul25 July 06:09

    Maybe it a strategy for something else…

    • mark says:

      25 Jul25 July 08:25

      this is an underrated comment!

• Irons80 says:

  24 Jul24 July 09:35

  The collective creaming themselves over Qatar on this site I find fascinating. But, alas I am going to be a (seemingly lone) dissenting voice.

  I am BA Gold (for context only) and I flew Qatar for the first time this year to Auckland in Business. LHR T4 lounge was lovely, A380 ok, lounges in Qatar where huge, souless and the food average at best (indeed I thought the food in the lower OW Emerald lounge to be nicer that Al Mourjan). My flight out was delayed by 6 hours for no reason (it’s the same most days, I think Qatar don’t like the slot into Auckland they have, so they create delays so they can have aircraft on the ground there for less time) – so my sleep plans were totally messed up.

  Meanwhile in terms of Q-Suite, I really don’t get what’s so amazing. I thought the seat was hard as a rock the entertainment system was a joke – so many options, but most of the films and TV shows were edited to the point of ‘what’s the point’…

  The highlight for me was actually the service on the A350 – the cabin crew were lovely.
  The flight cost me £7k – I wasn’t blown away. At all. I thought Qantas to Sydney was better (apart from the lack of internet on their international flights, but apparently that’s being resolved soon)

  • babyg says:

    24 Jul24 July 11:06

    a380 just OK? the lounge on the a380 is an amazing space… but the akl landing time is pretty stupid (2.45 am), i stopped flying direct from DOHA to AKL now, as i struggle to get in the time zone vs landing early eve…

    As for Q-Suite, my personal view is its all about travelling as a family.. having the option of a Q-Suite Quad is a game changer, double bed in the sky is great, but yes agree, as a solo traveller its nothing special compared with other newer offerings.

    • Irons80 says:

      24 Jul24 July 11:16

      Yes the lounge is nice, but sitting there on my own (I am travelling for work) makes me feel uncomfortable, and meanwhile no one else was there anyway… I can’t see it continuing in any refit vs. extra revenue for seats (esp if they introduce a premium economy)
      I actually was fine with the 2.45 arrival – I’d paid for a hotel room and was prepared to then just sleep in a proper bed when I arrived… instead, the delay cost me the night’s room which I didn’t use and it seems they do it most days… it’s cheeky to the extreme.
      They are a massively over-hyped airline. The TPs are good for this trip, but on a full-fare business it didn’t even net me than many Avios…

      • babyg says:

        24 Jul24 July 13:38

        being in the a380 lounge on your own is the best – my wife and I had the whole thing to ourselves for my birthday party earlier in the year, couldn’t be happier! But you are probably correct about it being shrunk/removed during any a380 refresh thou…. meanwhile the emirates bar is always rammed! I wouldnt say QR are that overhyped thou, take a BA flight to the same destination, that may help reset you opinion – you cant compare galleries lounges with the QR lounges at LHR for example, and the onboard QR experience wins hands down, plus if youre not travelling alone Qsuite comes into its own, but good to hear other opinions (especially from people who are fine with 2.45am landings!)

        • Irons80 says:

          24 Jul24 July 14:26

          I have travelled all over the world with BA – I personally would prefer it to Qatar.
          But, agree on the lounges at outstations front… that’s why I like the Qantas lounge in T3… personally I also think the obsession with the Cathay Lounge at T3 is odd… but I do like the Cathay Lounges in HKG though!
          I actually thought the Qantas business lounge in Singapore was the best of all the ones I visited… maybe I just have a thing for Qantas lounges 🙂

        • Rhys says:

          24 Jul24 July 15:12

          The Qantas lounges in Singapore are very good indeed.

        • Talay says:

          25 Jul25 July 00:01

          The QR lounge at Bangkok is a stand out for Bangkok though not on par with Doha of course.

      • John says:

        24 Jul24 July 22:24

        The DOH-AKL scheduled arrival used to be 5am when I did it before covid… this caused me to go to bed at 8pm and wake up at 4am for the whole 2 weeks in NZ, but that wasn’t really a problem

    • Marco says:

      24 Jul24 July 16:35

      Can we stop call it a DOUBLE BED? Those are literally twin single beds 🙂

  • BJ says:

    24 Jul24 July 16:36

    You’ve obviously not been reading that much or long, you’re far from the first to express more realistic and balanced thoughts on Qatar Airways, many have already done so.

• Mikeact says:

  24 Jul24 July 09:48

  I have actually been to a number of share holder press events, both here and the US, not presentations.

  • Rob says:

    24 Jul24 July 09:56

    You will know the level of disclosure which is possible then. It’s even worse at shareholder events because there is a legal responsibility on the directors not to say anything which has not been formally announced to the market.

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