At first glance he could easily be mistaken for a mild-mannered economics professor, but Akbar Al Baker's outer appearance belies the inner person who has a sharp, ticking mind.
The driving force behind the phenomenal growth of Qatar Airways, the slightly-built Al Baker can be largely credited with transforming the small, regional carrier owning four aircraft in 1997 into an international airline flying to 98 destinations worldwide today. He is also leading the development of the New Doha International Airport, which is slated to open in phases from 2012.
A proud Qatari, he could serve as the best brand ambassador for his country as he often incorporates "my country" into most of his sentences. Born in Doha, Al Baker is a graduate in Economics and Commerce and holds a private pilot's licence.
On board Qatar Airways' inaugural flight to Budapest last month, I requested his staff to give me some time to interview the CEO during the flight, thinking it will result in optimum time utilisation for both of us. I should have known better.
Hardworking CEOs of successful airlines probably use flying time to catch up on work. During the flight, I hear him berating a member of his staff. He's speaking in a low voice but it's obvious he's furious.
Later, while having lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel in Budapest, he concedes, "I am a very difficult CEO."
Speaking about his personal impression about Al Baker, Max Kingsley-Jones, Editor of Airline Business at flightglobal.com, told Weekend Review, "He is highly regarded by aircraft manufacturers due to his demanding requirements. He gets what he wants and he makes sure that the product is competitive. I find him very interesting to talk to due to his informed knowledge about the industry."
Al Baker is confident his staff won't quit due to his demanding nature. "Look, people who want challenge, who want future, they'll always want to work for Qatar Airways," he says.
He insists his company offers scope to grow to all its employees as promotions in Qatar Airways are "not by knowing somebody".
"We do not have any differentiation in the staff. In the senior management positions, we are an equal-opportunity [employer] no matter who you are, or from where you are," he says.
Females too?
"Yes, we were the first airline to recruit female pilots," he proudly claims.
Despite the rising apprehension in the aviation industry over the recent spike in oil prices, Al Baker insists it's not a cause of worry for him. "I will not have sleepless nights over oil prices for the next three years," he says.
"I worry about giving very high standards of in-flight service to my passengers at all times. We are very clever in Qatar Airways in the way we hedge our fuel and no matter what the oil price is, for the next three years Qatar Airways will pay a very attractive price for the oil we have hedged."
A little later, he concedes. "The less I pay for oil, the better it is for my bottomline."
Qatar Airways is fuelling its aggressive expansion with clever strategy and innovative ideas. For instance, Qatar Airways does not fly to Sydney as the Australian city is not a 24-hour airport. "Sydney does not feed properly into our network because we have to leave our aircraft there for a long time. We will never leave our aircraft at any airport. This is why we have the highest aircraft utilisation in our airline. We have nowhere where our aircraft stays on the ground," says Al Baker.
Rather than mindlessly acquiring sick entities that put pressure on the company's balance sheet, Al Baker follows a simple business strategy — focus on the core business. "My first priority is to be the best airline. I don't want to go the way some other airlines did, or some other crazy CEOs of airlines did by trying to [buy] other airlines or other facilities which were sick. Then they lost the focus on their own business and then eventually they collapsed.
Business investments
"We want to be sure that first we have made Qatar Airways very strong. Once we have done that, then we'll have the opportunity to look at various sound business investments that will give us solid returns and augment the product that we already have in the market," he adds.
Currently, Qatar Airways ranks number three in the top ten airlines in the world, with Asiana Airlines and Singapore Airlines bagging the top two spots according to a passenger survey conducted by Skytrax, the independent aviation monitor.
"We get many awards but we never announce it [but] Skytrax is very credible. One of the airlines in the region is begging them to give them a 5-star ranking," says Al Baker with a broad smile, refusing to name the airline.
A shrewd businessman, his no-nonsense approach and impatience with tardiness is well-known in aviation circles. In recent years, Al Baker has made it very clear what he thinks of Boeing's failure to deliver its 787 Dreamliners on time.
"Akbar is a very strong airline leader. His focus and attention to detail have allowed Qatar Airways to receive many awards from the commercial aviation and travel industry. For Boeing, Akbar has very high expectations and continually challenges us to deliver the best possible products for his airline and his customers," says Marty Bentrott, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice-president of sales for the Middle East, Russia and Central Asia.
Qatar Airways has ordered five A380-800s and 60 Boeing 787s (including options). The carrier is expected to take delivery of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner later this year.
"On which routes will you deploy the A380 and Dreamliner?" I ask him.
"It will deployed on long-thin routes."
Such as?
"Cannot tell you," he smiles. Any question he does not want to answer is deemed "commercial secret" or "sensitive information".
Relenting after a moment, he says, "Routes that are long-range but do not have too much passenger demand."
He speaks firmly, enunciating every word, which is great if you are not carrying a dictaphone. Problem is, he tends to cut you off mid-sentence.
"When you started out, you had four aircraft and now you have 92 ..."
"94," he corrects.
"OK, 94. Did you at that time think …?"
"No, I was interviewed by my friend Max Kingsley-Jones in 1998. I told him nobody should be worried about us. We'll operate to only 35 destinations and we will not have more than 30 aeroplanes. Two years ago, we met again and he asked, "How come?" So I told him, when I reach the goalpost, I will move it. And I'll do it even now. If I'm saying 120 destinations and 120 aeroplanes, when I reach there, maybe I'll change. I will always take the opportunity that I can when I reach there."
"You have ruled out launching a low-cost …"
"I never ruled [it] out," he says.
"But I read somewhere that you said ..."
"I never ruled it out," he says, "I said we are ready to do it but we will not do it until such a time that a low-cost [subsidiary] will not erode our market share. For a low-cost airline to succeed in the region, you need three things to happen," he elaborates. "One is you need deregulated aviation policy and secondly you need to have secondary airports which we don't have, and thirdly the volume, the population who are well-connected by infrastructure. The low-cost model is inconducive to our region."
Al Baker constantly reiterates that Qatar Airways is a young airline. Isn't he worried that they are running before learning to walk?
"We never run before we can walk, we'll never do that. You know, my country is capable of ordering 100 A380s. We have the cash. But we'll not do that. That is running [before walking]. We'll do it step by step. We are only going to order the numbers we feel can have a proper induction into our fleet without disrupting the balance in the aviation industry," he says.
He travels by rival airlines to study their service standards. "[Also], we have our product development people very often travel on other airlines [sometimes anonymously]. They go first class, come back in business class, or go in business class and come back in economy. They audit them and they compare it to us," he says. "We never have to worry about them."
Running a successful airline company leaves Al Baker with little time for his family. In his early fifties, Al Baker rides his bike in Doha at least once a week to unwind. He has "two boys" who are in their twenties and presently based in the UK.
His wife is not too thrilled with his choice of career. "My wife hates my job," he grins, "but I'm the boss."
Well, it's clear he's running the show, both at home as well as work.
Flying back from Doha, I am surprised to see that we're on board a Boeing 777-200 LR in which the 2-2-2 configured business class seats convert into 180 degree horizontal flat beds. I ask the flight purser why they are using this aircraft for a 45-minute flight to Dubai?
Actually, the aircraft was to be flown to Houston, Texas, the next morning. Instead of letting it sit idle on the tarmac, Qatar Airways uses it for short-haul flights to nearby destinations.
Guess whose idea it was?
Plan for 2022 Fifa World Cup
"When we host anything in my country, we do it the best way. It will be a joint, collective effort by every institution in my country to make sure that 2022 is an experience that Fifa will never forget."
Europe's plan to charge foreign airlines for greenhouse gas emissions
"I think this is unfair. What are they going to do with the money? Are they going to invest in planting trees? The Europeans should know that we’ll also charge their airlines coming into our airspace. Our people do not have the right to have cleaner air?"
Qatarisation
"It will be my dream to have a large numbers of Qataris. [But] our population is very small. We have so many good jobs available that they [Qataris] will not accept [low-ranking jobs]. ... But I am happy to say we have a lot of Qataris in engineering. We have [them] in flight-ops [and] we have pilots."
