Bloomberg Podcasts Sep 20, 2026
With Hamad Ali Al-Khater, CEO of Qatar Airways Group
Qatar Airways is running about 550 flights a day and moving more than 115,000 passengers a day through its Doha hub, with jet fuel about 90% dearer than it was on February 28.
The usual airline answer to a fuel shock that size is a fare rise. Hamad Ali Al-Khater said Qatar Airways is not taking it, and is cutting the flying instead: weaker routes suspended, profitable ones flown harder, fares left alone.
We're not passing that cost to our customers at this stage in time.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater, CEO of Qatar Airways Group, on Bloomberg Podcasts, has held the job since December 2025 and took it weeks before the conflict that stopped his airline almost completely for five or six days. He runs the largest carrier of international air cargo in the world and the largest Starlink-equipped fleet.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 9 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
About 75% of passengers now book inside a 60-day window, and demand held up anyway
Operations went to a near standstill for five or six days, then rebuilt to about 550 flights a day
Jet fuel is up about 90% since February 28, and none of it is going on the ticket price
The lever he is pulling instead is capacity: suspend the weak routes, double down on the profitable ones
138 aircraft arrive over the next five years, roughly half Airbus and half Boeing
Qatar Airways carries about 12% of the world's international air cargo, and is doubling down on it
The demand came from the energy transition, the semiconductor boom and capital flowing into AI
The group runs the largest Starlink-equipped fleet, and its engineers fit a terminal in three to four hours
February 28 was, in his own words, the single largest crisis in the airline's modern history
The privacy-door business class is in about 45% of the wide-body fleet, with a new version due next year
1. Qsuite And The Doors
The segment opened with an anchor praising the airline's front cabin and asking whether demand for it had survived the ground stops and flight disruptions across the region. Al-Khater said it had, and gave the fleet coverage.
The privacy-door business class covers about 45% of the wide-body fleet
Qsuite is our award winning business class product with privacy doors. We were the first to pioneer that level of detail within a business class cabin. It's in about 45% of our wide body fleet.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
He said the airline flies to 160 destinations and puts Qsuite on most of them, and that a next-generation version of the cabin arrives next year.
2. Booking Inside 60 Days
Asked what the crisis had meant for the business and whether passenger behavior had changed over the past six or seven months, Al-Khater gave a booking-window number rather than a demand number.
Three-quarters of passengers now book within 60 days of flying
So we're seeing about 75% of our passengers booked now within a sixty day window. Passengers are booking later, but demand is still pretty strong.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
He then walked through the recovery from a standing start.
Operations went from a near standstill to 550 flights a day
Started things in the beginning of this conflict with almost a standstill of operations for the first five, six days, and then we went to about 550 flights a day receiving over about a 115,000 passengers through our hub on a daily basis.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
The network is being rebuilt as well as refilled. He said the airline now flies to more than 170 destinations, is back into places it used to serve such as Zanzibar, is adding Bogota and Caracas, and starts Canberra in December. Asked whether Latin America is an expansion market, he said it is: Sao Paulo ran three times a day before the conflict, dropped to one, and is back.
3. Risk And Perception
An anchor drew the distinction between actual risk and the perception of it, and asked whether premium passengers with the option to avoid the Middle East were exercising it. Al-Khater conceded the dip and said it reversed as travel advisories eased over the summer.
The recovery was deliberately gradual, and the loyal passengers came back first
I think what's really important was the fact that carriers like Qatar Airways keep safety in our absolute priority right front and center.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
He named the flows that held up better than the airline had expected.
US-India, Asia-China and Australia were more resilient than forecast
We also saw resilient demands from US India flows, Asia China flows, Southwest Pacific with Australia really, proving to be a lot more resilient than we expected.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
4. His First Big Crisis
The second anchor asked him to go back to the start of the conflict and describe what it was like to manage it as a new chief executive, not knowing how long it would run. Al-Khater said the airline had rehearsed something like it in January, and that it had handled a smaller disruption the previous June.
A June crisis moved 30,000 passengers in about 27 hours
Don't forget that we had a little bit of a crisis to manage, and we recovered about 30,000 passengers in June last year when we had the initial crisis on the June 23. Those were recovered in about twenty seven hours.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
February 28 was a different order of magnitude.
He called it the biggest crisis in the airline's modern history
This was our single largest crisis, I would argue, in our modern history.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
His framing of it was that disruption is the job rather than an interruption to it. He counted three crises in ten years, and pointed at two from the previous fortnight alone: an ash cloud in Indonesia, and a pause in the United Kingdom's air navigation systems a few days later.
Geopolitics is a daily operating input in aviation
Now we went through three crises over the last ten years, but geopolitics is something we deal with on a daily basis in aviation. It's part of the game.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
He said the period was extremely difficult personally, that safety and staff were his priority, and that he is proud of what the team did.
5. Fuel Up 90%
An anchor put the rising fuel bill to him and asked how long elevated prices can run before they change how the airline operates. Al-Khater gave the price and the move.
Jet fuel has roughly doubled since the conflict began
Fuel is definitely something we're all closely monitoring. Jet fuel is about a $180, dollars today, about 90% increase from February 28. That's a huge amount.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
What has cushioned it, he said, is that the oil market started the year oversupplied. Strategic reserves are now being drawn down and the market is repricing, but the move so far is being driven by demand rather than by supply panic. The group has an integrated team working on fuel optimization and efficiency.
The fuel increase is not reaching the fare
We're not passing that cost to our customers at this stage in time.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
6. Capacity, Not Fares
Asked directly why not — whether leaving prices alone is a strategic decision — Al-Khater said the decision is about where the airline flies rather than what it charges, and that it is not a market-share play.
The adjustment happens in the route map, not the price
So what we're doing in that sense is that we're looking at routes and we're saying, okay. What are our most profitable routes? Let's double down on them. The less profitable routes, we're suspending up until the demand picture recovers in that sense, or pausing for a limited period of time.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
The two things that constrain how far that can go, he said, are airport slots, which have to be flown to be kept, and the loyal customer base. Because the demand is there, the picture stays resilient.
7. 138 Aircraft In 5 Years
An anchor noted that Al-Khater went to Airbus in France within weeks of taking the job, and asked how he is thinking about fleet growth and the balance between the two manufacturers. He gave a number and repeated it for emphasis.
The order book delivers 138 aircraft over five years, split about evenly
In the next five years, we're set to receive about a 138 aircraft. 138. Yeah. About 50% of them are gonna be Airbus, and the rest of it is Boeing.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
Qatar Airways is the world's largest operator of the A350-1000
So our fleet composition is gonna be seven eighty sevens, triple seven dash nines, a three fifty dash one thousands, which we are the world's largest operator of those wide body aircraft.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
The long-range A321neo joins by the end of this year and enters service early next year. The point of the mix, on his account, is that it lets the airline switch aircraft between routes and match the cargo business as well as the passenger one.
8. Cargo's 12% Share
Cargo is where he took the conversation next, and it is the part of the group he was most emphatic about.
Qatar Airways carries about 12% of the world's international air cargo
We are the single largest carrier of international cargo in the world with about 12% global market share.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
The demand is coming from energy transition, semiconductors and AI capital
Cargo is incredibly important. We're set to double down on that business. Agnostic of what we've seen with The Strait's closure, we've seen demand pick up from a energy transition perspective, from the semiconductor boom, from all the funds that are going into all the capital that's flowing into AI.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
An anchor asked whether the business had picked up because air freight is one of the few reliable ways out when shipping through the Strait is not dependable. Al-Khater said yes, without qualification, and described flying everything from berries to essential goods into the home market in the opening days of the conflict.
He also said the group is importing its passenger playbook into a business that has not had one.
Cargo customers are being treated like passengers
So our customers are actually choosing us because we're treating them like they should be in 2026.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
9. Starlink In 3 Hours
The closing question came from an anchor who had just flown another airline with Starlink installed and found it much faster than what he was used to. He asked what Qatar Airways' arrangement is and how important it is to get it across the fleet.
The group operates the largest Starlink-equipped fleet
So we are the single largest operator of a Starlink fleet or a Starlink equipped fleet. We just recently equipped our seven eighty seven dash nine with Starlink.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
The detail he seemed proudest of was installation time.
A terminal goes on an aircraft in three to four hours
Because right now, they're able to install Starlink in about three to four hours on an aircraft, which is basically the envy of other airlines coming.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
It sells tickets on the long flights
It has been a stellar selling point, from you're on an eighteen hour flight to Auckland, you definitely take advantage of high speed Wi Fi.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
Most of the fleet gets it inside a year
But we're excited to continue to grow, and Starlink is gonna go on most of our fleet by the end of next year.
Hamad Ali Al-Khater
Bonus Insights
The interview was recorded in a working room, and it shows
Al-Khater broke off near the end to apologize for background noise from the live set around him, then picked the answer back up. Earlier, an anchor apologized on air for the same thing.
The mint tea got as much airtime as the balance sheet
One anchor opened by saying the airline is an incredible one to fly and credited it with being out in front on what the industry now calls first in business class. Another closed the product discussion by noting the two of them had been talking off camera about the mint tea and the rest of the amenities; the first anchor said the airline is the reason she now drinks mint tea obsessively.
Nobody could stop saying "roaring"
Al-Khater used the word twice in quick succession — once for the demand picture after travel advisories eased, once for cargo — and the anchors picked it up and ran a short exchange on it before steering back to the cargo business.
Al-Khater's bottom line is that a fuel bill up about 90% is being absorbed by flying fewer unprofitable routes rather than by charging more, and that the hedge underneath the whole group is cargo — a business taking 12% of the world's international freight while the Strait is shut.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Qatar Airways (His airline. About 550 flights a day, 115,000 passengers a day through Doha, more than 170 destinations, and the largest carrier of international air cargo in the world)
Qsuite (The privacy-door business class, in about 45% of the wide-body fleet, with a next-generation version arriving next year)
Airbus and Boeing (The 138 aircraft due over five years split roughly 50/50 between them; the fleet runs to 787s, 777-9s, A350-1000s and, from the end of this year, long-range A321s)
Starlink (Qatar Airways says it operates the largest Starlink-equipped fleet and can install a terminal in three to four hours, which he called "the envy of other airlines")
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