Qatar Airways Group CEO, H E Akbar Al Baker (right) with David L Calhoun, President & CEO, The Boeing Company (centre) during a session at the Qatar Economic Forum yesterday.
Doha: Qatar Airways Group CEO, H E Akbar Al Baker, emphasised the significance of aviation in various aspects of life, including business, travel, and leisure, during a panel discussion yesterday titled “The latest from 30,000 feet” at the Qatar Economic Forum powered by Bloomberg.
“People will travel and will still depend on aviation because it plays such a large part of our lives for business, leisure, trade, economic development and there’s no alternative other than planes.”
During the discussion, Al Baker shared a story about a young Finnish girl who attended a climate conference to demonstrate an alternative to air travel by arriving in a boat. However, he pointed out that although she covered a portion of the distance by boat, the majority of her journey was still reliant on air travel due to time constraints. Al Baker highlighted the importance of being realistic about sustainable flights and recognising the indispensable role of aviation in fulfilling travel requirements efficiently.
While acknowledging the aviation industry’s collective efforts to address environmental concerns, Al Baker expressed scepticism regarding the ambitious target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. He cited the limited production of sustainable aviation fuel and the early stages of hydrogen technology as factors that might impede the industry’s ability to meet the set goal within the specified timeframe. He noted the need for realistic expectations and cautioned against over-promising on future advancements.
“I don’t think we will be able to achieve net zero emission by 2050, everybody is talking about it, but let us be realistic, there is not enough production of sustainable aviation fuel, the hydrogen project is in its infancy.”
“That hydrogen technology will mature in the second half of the century, means after 2050, which means we will not achieve what everybody is being promised that it will happen. I am very skeptical about this.”
In terms of sustainability, Al Baker discussed Qatar Airways’ commitment to continually purchase new airplanes. “This is why we keep on buying new airplanes, keeping the average age of our airplanes the youngest in the industry is to keep growing but at the same time not increasing the emission that we are producing from our airplanes.”
On discussion about the Chinese market, he highlighted China’s significance as a crucial market for Qatar Airways and the entire aviation industry.
He added that with the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown measures in China, there is a significant appetite among Chinese travellers to explore destinations beyond their borders.
Al Baker said that they contribute substantially to the revenue generated through duty-free shopping at airports, moreover, he also revealed that Chinese travellers are the leading nationality in terms of spending at Qatar Duty Free.
