Host Welcome & Keynote: Qatar Airways

Transcript

H.E Akbar Al Baker:Excellencies, distinguished guests, my dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to welcome you to the 2nd edition of CAPA Qatar Aviation Aeropolitical and Regulatory Summit. I would like to thank Peter and his team at CAPA for their great work and tremendous dedication in organizing this 2020 Summit in my beloved country, Qatar. I look forward to many more. The timing of this year's Summit is perfect to engage in fruitful discussion and constructive debate. More than ever, our industry continues to show great levels of resilience in the face of adversity and disruption. At the same time, We remain a constructive voice in improving regulatory framework across the regions, especially in the areas of sustainability and liberalisation. During the next 2 days, we will have the opportunity to hear from influential movers and shakers and leading thinkers on some of the key issues affecting our fragile industry. What is next for the aviation strategy for Europe? What will happen after Brexit? Is it feasible to achieve consensus on a global regulatory framework to tackle environmental challenges? What is North America's unique approach to open skies? What is the role that airport infrastructure and slot management can play in unleashing the benefits of liberalization? How can we provide more operational flexibility and further liberalization to cargo services? How will our industry address issues of capacity building and shortages of aviation professionals, which we all face? How serious are we on diversity and inclusive initiatives? As we begin the new decade, I would like to share some thoughts with you on how I see our industry Winning against the forces of inevitable transformation and disruption. First, we should put our best efforts to avoid self-inflicted disruption. The airspace blockade imposed on my country by some of our neighbors is an example of how our industry can be hijacked for political agendas. We should continue to condemn any political action that violates international law and jeopardizes the safety and regulatory of air transport. This is why we need to demand that international organizations such as ICAO fulfill their mandate to keep the skies safe for all airlines and protected from geopolitical agendas. As my friend Alexander de Juniac likes to put it, We should protect the business of freedom at all costs. For Qatar Airways, these have been challenging years, but despite this adversity, our resilience has been unwavering. Despite the illegal blockade on my country, we have continued our growth and global expansion without compromising our commitment to excellence. In 2019, we were awarded the Skytrax Best Airline Prize for a record 5th time, never achieved by an airline before. Just recently at the Kuwait Aviation Show, we announced new destinations that will be joining our network in 2020, again an envy of many others. With these new routes, Our current operations will expand to over 175 destinations around the world, providing our passengers with more options and flexibility when they are planning their travels. Our cargo business continues its impressive growth across the globe. Second, our industry shows always— our industry should always embrace collaboration in the face of unexpected disruptive forces. In recent weeks, as you all know, we have been challenged by global health emergencies, volcano eruptions, and geopolitical tensions. Collaborations and coordination have been key ingredients for creating industry resilience while preserving the highest levels of safety and security for passengers and crew. This collaborative approach has also supported our interaction with regulators and competent authorities. Acting as a collective in the face of adversity and disruption will always make us stronger. Third, we should use disruption as a platform for positive engagement with international regulators and international organizations. As is often said, necessity is the mother of invention, and often the challenges created by unexpected disruptions lead to creative and innovative solutions. And my country has been a pioneer in this against the illegal blockade. For example, the challenges of climate change resulted in the widespread industry support for implementation of CORSIA as the global scheme to reduce industry carbon emissions. We should also continue to work closely with relevant authorities to improve levels of passenger protection as more and more people in the world have access to air travel. We should also work with national authorities to help them achieve their long-term policy objectives and improve the well-being of their citizens. This is why Qatar Airways has supported the inclusion of provisions on the fair competition, environment, and social issues within the legal framework of the Qatar-EU Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement. This is also why Qatar Airways has engaged positively with the United States authority in recent, recent years, and we will continue to support job creation and better consumer choices. We have also continued our engagements with other governments to emphasize our support to travelers, shippers, as well as tourism and business sectors. On the liberalization front, it is time to move from liberalization on paper to liberalization in practice. Open skies agreements are useless if airlines are blocked on slots at airports or face other regulatory obstacles. This is why we should continue to promote the principles of smart regulation through direct engagement with governments and industry groups. We should also support the World Slot Guidelines as the single standard for the management of airport slots. As you all know, outdated airport infrastructure can be a huge operational hurdle for airlines and great source of inconvenience for our passengers. This is why the State of Qatar invests in its airport infrastructure with a long-term approach that takes into account of the projected capacity and tourism goals. In October 2019, Hamad International Airport revealed plans for a second expansion phase, I would of course like to thank His Excellency the Minister of Transport, Jassim bin Saif Al-Sulaiti, who was a pioneer in pushing this project to go ahead and finish before the 2022 World Cup. This expansion will increase the capacity from 38 million passengers to 58 million passengers, and the project will complete in 900 days. To be precise, in 810 days, because the 90 days has already elapsed since we signed the contract. Beyond 2022, we will increase the capacity to 70 million passengers. Supported by the adaptation of new technologies such as RFID and OneID, we are confident that the state-of-the-art airport infrastructure will improve market access for foreign airlines and the movement of passengers. I would again like to thank Alexander de Juniac, the Director General and CEO of IATA, for pushing new initiatives in the airport to make travel more accessible to more passengers. On the sustainability front, our industry should continue to implement environmentally friendly practices and continuously support innovation. The development of affordable alternative fuels and the elimination of single-use plastics are among a long list of promising initiatives that can make a real difference. Our industry's commitment to a more sustainable environment for the future and for the generations to come may involve practicing In carbon offsetting, participating in carbon offsetting projects at Qatar Airways, we take our role as a good corporate citizen very seriously. This is why we continue in investing world's most technologically advanced aircraft with low levels of carbon and noise emissions. At the level of internal processes, we continue to measure and reduce our energy consumption and greenhouse emissions across all our operations. We continue to invest great resources in the development of our fuel optimization program and the implementation of our wildlife protection program. We also remain compliant with the EU ETS, and we have started reporting carbon emissions for the baseline year of Corsia. Going forward, I would like to provide you with a view of where Qatar Airways is moving in the next few years. On the political, aeropolitical front, we will continue our positive engagement with the European Union. The European Commission has been a reliable partner in reaching a balanced legal framework for the landmark Qatar-EU Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement, which was announced during the CAPA summit last year. I hope the agreement will be ratified by the EU members States soon. On the investment and partnerships front, we will continue to adopt a bold commercial approach based on diversification and value creation. We will continue our engagement with various African partners to support and promote the realization of African aviation potential and African aviation dream. Gone are the days of harsh winner-takes-all competitive environment. The new landscape requires the industry to identify shared goals and ensure shared benefits— win-win for all. This is why our commercial agreements with partner airlines around the world are built to produce a balance of benefits and create more convenience to our passengers and shippers. Finally, we will continue to support Qatar's national vision for human and economic development. In recent years, my country has been implementing concrete measures to protect all expatriates and continues to work on a complete reform of our labor legislation, as recently announced by the office of the ILO in my country. Qatar Airways is deeply committed to combating modern slavery by identifying the risks related to human trafficking in our employment practices and our supply chain. We are also working closely with the State National Tourism Council to promote the tourism sector with the enhancement of visitor experience to my country. Ultimately, we want to ensure that Qatar becomes a global tourism destination and a well-recognized leader in organization of leisure, sporting, and business events. One of my core beliefs is that liberalization— liberalized aviation sector can be a great catalyst for global economic and human development. Aviation is always at risk, but together governments, regulators, and industry can forge a new and sustainable reality for aviation. At Qatar Airways, we believe in connecting people with no borders, Only horizons. I hope you will enjoy the next two days of discussion. Thank you very much, and once again, welcome to my country, Qatar.

Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of CAPA - Centre for Aviation. Our reproduction policy is as follows: you may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to CAPA - Centre for Aviation and link to the original video page. All other use is prohibited. While we aim for 100% accuracy in the transcript, there may be some minor transcribing errors.