Qatar Airways and International Airline Group have been working together for some time – with notable collaborations of the two involving Qatar Airways taking over the cargo between London and Hong Kong from British Airways World Cargo, and of course the entry of Qatar Airways into oneworld.
Qatar Airways Airbus A330 landing at London Heathrow – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
Well it seems today that Qatar Airways wants a bit more of the action, with the purchase of 9.99% of IAG Group – the group containing and operating British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and IAG Cargo.
The stake is valued at around £1.15billion.
So why the interest? A lot of it can be put down transatlantic operations – whilst Qatar Airways operates its own flights from Doha, its transatlantic operations aren’t the biggest. By comparison, British Airways and Iberia have a fair chunk of transatlantic market.
Qatar Airways network on the other hand focuses Eastwards and towards Europe, allowing for minimal overlap between the two groups.
Qatar Airways – unlike Eithad – have been quiet in the acquisitions area, with the major action being the buyback of the airline into Qatari government ownership.
In theory, Qatar Airways can own up to 49% of the airline under European Union rules, giving the airline more direction on how IAG should operated. Qatar Airways is considering its opens in this field, and maybe open to buying more of IAG at a later date.
Akbar Al Baker – the Chief executive of Qatar airways states:
“IAG represents an excellent opportunity to further develop our Westwards strategy. Having joined the oneworld alliance it makes sense for us to work more closely together in the near term and we look forward to forging a long-term relationship”
It’s an interesting move – although not unexpected. What Qatar Airways does next with the 9.9% stake of IAG will be interesting. I’d suspect at the least there will be a lot more codeshare flights appearing in the future with Qatar Airways QR flight codes appearing…
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