Qatar Airways boss Akbar Al Baker is losing patience with Boeing over its failure to begin deliveries of the airline's 787, as delays are now threatening its network growth.
The Doha-based airline's first 787 made its public debut at Farnborough in July and was expected to be handed over to Qatar Airways by late August. However, as a result of what Al Baker describes as "a creeping delivery date", the handover has still not taken place, forcing the airline to delay plans to introduce the twinjet on international services to London.
This had been slated to begin in September, and five 787s were due to be delivered by the end of the year.
© Max Kingsley-Jones
Qatar Airways is adding five new routes to its network in the coming months but Al Baker tells Flightglobal that further expansion has been stymied by the delays. "Others [routes] we will have to delay due to the 787 deliveries, which is very disappointing to Qatar Airways," he says.
"We are now at the mercy of the manufacturer of the 787 to fulfil our growth, which is very difficult for us to digest as we never thought we would have been failed so badly by Boeing," he adds.
With no firm delivery date currently in sight, Al Baker says the airline "now has to look at all our options".
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
