DOHA: Qatar Airways is not intending to cancel any airplanes orders from Boeing despite the delays for delivery, Qatar Airways Group chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al Baker told a news conference here yesterday.
“We are still expecting to receive our Boeing 787s contractually by the end of 2011. However, we are prepared for any further slippage as we have taken all the precautions we require vis-a-vis retiring our current fleet. The 787s are replacement for our current fleet. I still have confidence that Boeing will overcome all the issues with that airplane and that the test flights will resume before the end of our current month,” he said.
“As of today, I still have confidence in Boeing that they will deliver the airplane as per their contractual obligations. I want to be very specific, that we are not going to cancel the order as of today,” Al Baker said following the inauguration of the new Doha Arrivals terminal.
He added that he did not think there will be another slip, because the reason of the issue with the 787 had anything to do technically or with the software. “It was relating to maybe some workmanship issue which Boeing has resolved,” he said.
Al Baker admitted there was already a delay in delivering the planes as Boeing was falling back on test flights. He said these delays would affect the airline’s planes being retired, “because we don’t want to keep any airplane that is beyond five years in our fleet. But we are pretty confident that if there is a delay it will be minimal and Qatar Airways is not intending to cancel any airplanes orders at the moment,” he said.
Qatar Airways has 30 Boeing 787 airplanes on order with option for another 30. Al Baker also noted that he expected the airline will post net profits in the current fiscal year which ends in March next year. “We were profitable in the last financial year, we are well on the way of profitability on the current financial year and we have already started a mechanism to prepare ourselves for an initial public offer (IPO) during the third financial year which we also see a very positive trend,” he said.
He added that when the airline posts three continuous years of net profits, it will go for an IPO. “We had already a net profit last year, we are going to be net profit again this year, when we close our financials in March and we are expecting to also be profitable. This is why we have already triggered the mechanism that we would need to go for an IPO,” he said.
However, he pointed out that as for the percentage of the airline to be put on public offer and the timing will be decided by the owners of the airline. He would not disclose the figures, only saying it was a hefty profit. “I will only start declaring my profits when we have launched the IPO exercise to the people. We are still a privately-owned company, though we are 50-50 private-public partnership. So we are not obligated to announce, but I will tell you that we have a very hefty profit,” he said.
As for the Mundial 2022, Al Baker said Qatar Airways will be the principal conduit for all the people who will be taking part in the event. By then Qatar Airways will be having a fleet of over 140 aircraft and will be operating to over 130 destinations globally, he said.
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