Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker has warned that many more airlines will be forced out of business by the pandemic, in an interview on CNN’s Quest Means Business.
“By the time this pandemic is over, there will only be few airlines that are strong and will continue operating,” he said. “A lot of other airlines will go under. And this will continue to happen, because we have not seen the worst of it over yet.”
“If this pandemic prolongs for too long, this will completely destroy the world’s economy which is so dependent on airlines for delivering business, carrying freight around, and most importantly creating jobs,” he said.
Al-Baker also criticised the slow roll out of vaccines in some countries, which will cause issues for the aviation industry. “And we will have to work a way within this risks that we will have to take. But we will have to do things, we'll have to put processes, we'll have to put systems in place to mitigate that risk.”