Fascinating: Richard Quest Interviews Qatar Airways’ Mysterious New CEO

Maybe I’m the only one who finds this interesting, but we’ve finally heard from Qatar Airways’ new CEO, roughly six months into his tenure!

Qatar Airways’ very strange management shakeup

It has been an odd several years when it comes to management at Qatar Airways. Akbar Al Baker was the company’s longtime CEO, and he really deserves credit for turning the airline into what it is today. He was CEO for 27 years, making him one of the industry’s longest serving CEOs… only to abruptly “resign” in late 2023.

It’s odd, because the Qatari national obviously wasn’t going to go work for another airline, and the speed with which it happened, plus the way the announcement was phrased, made it seem like this wasn’t a voluntary resignation. Admittedly Al Baker was a very polarizing figure who butted heads with a lot of people, but for so long, that seemed to be viewed as a feature and not a bug. 😉

Al Baker was then suddenly replaced by Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, previously the Chief Operating Officer at Doha Hamad International Airport. While totally different than Al Baker, Al-Meer struck me as a class act, even spending his weekends roaming airports and helping passengers. He did a lot to improve morale at the airline, and seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

Under his leadership, things continued in the same direction… for two years, at which point it was announced that he was also resigning effective immediately, and was replaced by Hamad Al-Khater. Al-Khater was previously also Chief Operating Officer of the airport, so he had exactly the same role that Al-Meer had before becoming CEO.

I think we can all agree that this is just a little strange, especially with the lack of any context. Look, I don’t expect an airline to reveal why someone was let go, but even through sources I know, I haven’t even gotten a very good explanation off the record. I mean, I’ve heard some things, but nothing I’m comfortable sharing, because I’m not confident enough in what I’ve heard.

What made this all strange is that nearly six months into Al-Khater’s tenure, I hadn’t seen a single interview from him, barely saw a press release quoting him, etc. Given his lack of airline experience (though he has airport experience), it’s a bit odd to have this person at the helm of the company, especially at such a time of crisis. For that matter, even the employees I’ve spoken to seemingly know very little about him.

Now, before I get to the next section, let me say that Thierry Antinori is the Chief Commercial Officer at Qatar Airways, and I’d consider him to basically be the de facto CEO. He has been the consistent theme in all of this, and if he were a Qatari national, I trust he’d be CEO. But either way, I think it’s safe to assume Antinori is the one quietly steering the ship.

Finally, an interview with Qatar Airways’ new CEO

The International Air Travel Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place in recent days in Rio de Janeiro, and I guess you could say this was Al-Khater’s first real public event. With that, we’ve also seen what I believe is Al-Khater’s first interview with a major news outlet, conducted by none other than Richard Quest.

There couldn’t be a better person to interview him — Quest is smart, he’s a huge avgeek, and he’s not afraid to ask tough questions, and push for answers. For example, here’s one very interesting part:

Quest: “There’s no escaping the fact that Qatar Airways has now been through three CEOs in as many years. Your immediate predecessor, we have no idea why he was let go, and we have no idea the thinking about your appointment. The aviation world is looking, and saying ‘what’s going on at Qatar Airways?'”
Al-Khater: “To put things into perspective, I’m the third CEO in 30 years.”
Quest: “With respect, sir, the first CEO was 25 years, so we’re talking about the decision making of the past few years, and it seems somewhat byzantine, there’s been no reason given why your predecessor was let go.”
Al-Khater: “This was a board predicted decision, but what that means in practice, we are captains of the same ship, steering it in the same direction. And what that means is that Qatar Airways is going to continue being the best airline in the world, there’s continued renewed focus on passengers, there’s a lot of growth.”
Quest: “So to those who say ‘yes, but the new CEO,’ forgive me, sir, these are not easy questions to put as such, but to quote somebody from the last few days, you appear to have slender qualifications for this particular role as CEO of one of the world’s major airlines. That is an undeniable fact.”

And that’s only the beginning…

Then below is another clip, where Al-Khater talks about how demand has been during the war.

Massive kudos to Quest for asking all the right questions. I don’t think there’s a single industry person I know who hasn’t had the same questions Quest has — who is Al-Khater, what is his experience, and when is he going to make an appearance?

Obviously he doesn’t have the direct airline experience of so many other CEOs, but what I honestly found even stranger is how he just has made so few public appearances. That’s quite a contrast to Al-Meer, who had a similar background and qualifications, but was out there from day one, sharing his vision for the company.

I’ve gotta say, now that I’ve seen Al-Khater, he seems like a pretty bright guy, and he’s well spoken, so I’m even more confused why he hasn’t been more public. I had almost wondered if his English was just so bad that he didn’t want to do interviews in English, but that’s clearly not the case — it’s excellent.

Now, there’s not actually much substance to what he shared in his interview, or much unique in the way of his vision. He basically just uses all the buzzwords, and says he’ll continue to move things in the same direction. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I think he has solid but generic answers to things.

Anyway, it’s nice to finally put a face and voice to the name, and I hope he’s a bit more public going forward. For his sake, I hope his tenure also lasts for more than two years. Now if only we could figure out what has actually caused this “three CEOs in three years” situation…

Bottom line

Qatar Airways suddenly got a new CEO in late 2025, for the second time in roughly two years. Like the previous CEO, this one was also formerly the Chief Operating Officer of the airport, with little direct airline experience.

Not only has there been the mystery around why we’ve now seen three CEOs in three years, but the newest one has also been the least public of the bunch, and I hadn’t seen a single interview with him. With the IATA AGM having just taken place, he finally made a public appearance, and did an interview with Richard Quest.

Quest is a brilliant avgeek, and of course he asked all the good questions. I can’t say we actually learned a lot from the new CEO’s answers, but at least it’s nice to finally see him in the (virtual) “flesh.”

What do you make of Al-Khater’s interview with Quest?