Photo: Eric Salard/Flickr
The ongoing tension between U.S. domestic airlines and the Gulf carriers has always had the sophistication of a playground fight, and Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker just launched yet another verbal mudpie in their direction. During an appearance at the Art for Tomorrow conference in Doha, Akbar al-Baker answered a question about his airline’s CO2 emissions by taking a big swing at Delta.
I am delighted that (Delta CEO) Richard Anderson of Delta is not here. First of all, we don’t fly crap airplanes that are 35 years old. The [age of the] Qatar Airways average fleet is only fours years and one month.
He then got back to the original question and said that Qatar had the lowest CO2 emissions of any carrier, but that’s a less impressive soundbite.
Delta has yet to respond to al-Baker’s comments, but if their previous exchanges are any indication, it will be with a press release that says “I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I?” Last month, Anderson and Delta had to issue a half-assed apology after making an unfortunately pointed comparison between the Gulf carriers and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The ongoing hostility is a byproduct of increased competition between the carriers, namely the fact that America’s Big Three can feel the upstart Gulf airlines breathing on the back of their collective necks. American, Delta and United recently issued a 55-page report that accused Qatar Airways, Etihad and Emirates of receiving up to $42 billion in “unfair” subsidies from their respective governments (Emirates is reportedly considering legal action against the U.S. carriers over their allegations).
During that same arts conference, al-Baker addressed those accusations, and again called out Richard Anderson. He said:
I think Mr. Anderson doesn’t know the difference between equity and subsidy. We never receive any subsidy. The state of Qatar is the owner of Qatar Airways and whatever funds are put into the airline is as equity, which is quite legitimate. The unfortunate thing is that because they are so inefficient they want to blame us […] for their failures and drawbacks.
The AFP hasn’t reported whether the words “DELTA SUCKS” were spray-painted on the wall outside the conference venue, but if they were, we probably know who did it.