Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, who currently heads Doha's Hamad Airport, will succeed Al Baker.
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GLOThe CEO of Qatar Airways, known for his candidness, has been at the helm of the airline for 27 years, taking over just three years after the carrier commenced operations. During this time, he has played a pivotal role in transforming the airline into a highly respected global carrier. However, his tenure has also been marked by controversial and sexist comments.
In the current year, Qatar Airways was ranked as the world’s second-best airline in the prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards, a recognition it has received seven times.
Throughout his leadership, Al Baker successfully positioned Qatar Airways as a major player in connecting global air traffic between the East and the West, competing with carriers like Emirates and Turkish Airways. Qatar Airways operates flights to over 160 destinations from its hub in Doha, including 12 in the United States, boasting a fleet of 240 aircraft.
Al Baker drew criticism at the 2018 IATA Annual General Meeting in Sydney when he suggested that airlines should be run by men, but he issued an apology for the remark the following day. He had previously stirred controversy by making derogatory comments about U.S. flight attendants, contrasting their age with the younger flight attendants at Qatar Airways.
During the last decade, Al Baker was particularly outspoken as the three major U.S. carriers—Delta, American, and United—engaged in a lobbying campaign to limit service by Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Etihad in the United States. The “Big 3” accused the Gulf carriers of receiving state aid in violation of international air treaties.
One notable instance was Al Baker’s admission in 2016 that Qatar Airways had launched service to Atlanta to deliberately provoke Delta.
Despite being a source of contention, Al Baker has played a prominent role in the global airline community, including serving as the chairman of IATA from 2018 to 2019.
A year after Al Baker’s remark about women in Sydney, Qatar Airways became the sponsor of the IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards, honoring women in aviation.
The airline was also one of the first to commit to IATA’s 25by2025 Campaign, which began in 2019 with a goal of increasing by 25% the number of women in airline executive positions by 2025.
