In late 2023, Badr Mohammed Al Meer became CEO of Qatar Airways, replacing longtime CEO Akbar Al Baker. If you ask me, Al Meer has done an exceptional job so far in the short time he has been at the airline, and he’s one of the airline CEOs I respect most.
In particular, his focus has been on people, including staff and customers. Employees at the airline love him, as one of his first orders of business at the airline was eliminating restrictions on staff, including lifting curfews in Doha and ending the social media ban while in uniform.
We’re now learning that Al Meer is pretty amazing at taking care of customers as well, thanks to a remarkable anecdote that was shared online.
Al Meer personally helps passengers at Doha Airport
Twitter/X user @pbjcaviar shares an awesome story regarding what happened to his sister at Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH). Here’s the series of posts that were shared online:
Crazy story my sister had traveling today. My little sister flys standby around the world for dirt cheap cause our father worked at Eva Air Cargo for 20+ years.
Today she was in Doha, Qatar stuck at the airport. There were seats open on the flight from Doha to Chicago, but due to weight management, they weren’t taking any additional passengers. When you fly standby you get a seat only once the plane begins to board and there are seats open. So she decides to try to get on the flight to DC at the gate for the flight to DC, the Qatar Airways employees tell her the same thing. They aren’t bringing on any more passengers due to weight management.
At this point she’s getting really anxious, nervous, and worried. She hadn’t slept all night b/c she was flying from Bangkok to Doha. She had no idea what to do and so she stood sad under the departure screens wondering what flight she might be able to get on.
At this point a man walked up to her and asked her why she is so sad. My sister told him everything about the situation and he told her “go to the business lounge and everything will be okay.” Turns out he was the CEO of Qatar Airways Badr Mohammed Al Meer and he hooked her up with a business class seat to JFK.
An employee at Qatar gave my sister her ticket and told her she is very lucky b/c he rarely walks around the airport like that. So just like that my little sister is about to board the 14 hour flight to JFK in business class. Incredible the power some people hold in this world. With a snap of a finger everything went from sour to super sweet.
This story sounded so over-the-top that I wondered if it was true. So I reached out to a contact, and have confirmed this is true, with the exception of one detail. The person on Twitter/X claims that an employee said his sister was lucky because Al Meer rarely walks around the airport like that. I’m told that this is actually how Al Meer spends much of his weekends.
Talk about hands-on leadership & humanity!
Let’s be honest, there are plenty of CEOs who will go into public and do good when there’s a camera around or in high profile situations, in order to seem more likable. But that’s not what happened here. This story is literally being shared by the sibling of a standby passenger, and he doesn’t even have a particularly large following on social media.
I also think it’s important to emphasize that this passenger wasn’t actually owed anything, and the airline didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. She was traveling on standby, which comes with risks, and unfortunately it didn’t work out in her favor (well, until she met Al Meer).
This story is more about humanity than it is directly about good business, and frankly that’s something that’s really refreshing to see from an airline CEO. Arguably showing humanity can be good for business in the long run.
When Al Meer first took over in his role, I was cautiously optimistic that he’d lead the carrier in a positive direction, based on what he was saying. But actions speak louder than words, so I reserved judgment.
Now we’ve seen his actions over and over, and I’m a fan of Al Meer, plain and simple. An airline CEO who roams his hub airports on weekends has my respect.
Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate how incredibly lucky this guy’s sister was? Goodness, imagine you’re at the airport and on the verge of tears, and suddenly the carrier’s CEO shows up and makes your day.
Bottom line
Qatar Airways has a new CEO as of late 2023. I’ve been impressed by what he has been doing on a high level, from managing staff, to his vision for the airline. But as it turns out, he’s pretty hands on as well, and apparently spends much of his weekends roaming the airport. We’re only learning about this thanks to a user who shared an anecdote on social media. Simply incredible!
Anyone love this story as much as I do?
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