By Praveen Menon
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Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has bought the stakes in its national airline owned by private shareholders, making Qatar Airways a fully government-owned entity, the carrier’s chief executive said yesterday.
A government source told Reuters that Qatar wanted to develop a fair and competitive business environment.
“There are changes happening. Qatar wants to have a fair and competitive business environment for everyone,” the source said.
Qatar Airways, which achieved a revenue target of over $10bn in 2013, had been jointly held in a public-private partnership, with about 50% owned by private investors.
“We became fully government-owned in July last year,” the airline’s CEO Akbar al-Baker said at a news conference in Dubai.
Al-Baker declined to comment on the amount paid for the stakes by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) or to speculate on what triggered the change in ownership.
Al-Baker said that after the ownership change the airline planned to announce its 2013 financial results
before the third quarter of the year.
“We are a very profitable airline. We don’t announce the results because we were private and publicly held in the past. Now we will announce profits,” he said.
Qatar Airways and the other regional airlines like Emirates and Etihad Airways are rapidly expanding their fleet and global reach.
Qatar Airways became part of the Oneworld global aviation alliance last year, the first Gulf airline to enter into an alliance.
Etihad has been expanding by picking minority stakes in carriers around the world including Air Berlin, Virgin Australia and Inida’s Jet Airways.
Al-Baker said he was also interested in entering the Indian airline market, and would be keen for an association with India’s IndiGo Airlines.
“We are always open to opportunities in India,” he said.
“We would be very interested in IndiGo if there’s something available there. But the airline is performing very well so I don’t think they would be interested.”
IndiGo declined to comment on al-Baker’s remarks.
Al-Baker added Qatar Airways was close to sealing a revenue-sharing partnership with British Airways, its Oneworld partner.