Qatar Airways to seek compensation from Boeing over MAX grounding

ST PETERSBURG: Qatar Airways plans to seek compensation from Boeing over the grounding of 3 737 MAX airplane by Italian airline Air Italy, the place the Qatari company is a significant shareholder, group chief government Akbar al-Baker instructed Reuters.

Boeing MAX jets have been grounded international and airlines are cancelling multi-million contracts following crashes in October and March that killed nearly 350 other folks.

Second B737 Max crash: India seeks information from Boeing

India has sought knowledge from Boeing after a second B737 Max crashed on Sunday. While on Sunday an Ethiopian Airlines B737 crashed in Africa, simply over four months again on October 29, 2018, Indonesian provider Lion Air's B737 Max had crashed into the Java Sea killing all 189 other folks on board. In India, SpiceJet and Jet Airways have ordered Boeing 737 Max.

"At Qatar Airways we do not operate any MAX airplanes – it affected our investment into Air Italy. Air Italy has three MAX operated in its fleet and they were grounded so it affected us – we had to take extra routing from outside," al-Baker stated.

In 2017, Qatar purchased 49% of Air Italy, Italy's second biggest provider behind Alitalia, which, in flip, is partly owned by Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways.

"Boeing has to compensate us for grounding," al-Baker stated, but did not elaborate at the doable value.

In Russia, Qatar Airways is in talks to buy a 20% stake in Vnukovo airport, Moscow's third biggest by passenger traffic.

Al-Baker stated Qatar Airways was once taking a look to near the deal "sometime before the end of the year."

Last year, Vnukovo's treated round 21 million passengers, when compared with 29 million at Domodedovo and virtually 46 million at Sheremetyevo, Russia's largest airport and one of the crucial busiest in Europe.

What can explain 737 Max eight crashes?

China, Indonesia and Ethiopia, the place the most recent crash involving a Boeing 737-Max eight took place on Sunday, killing 157 other folks, have grounded the plane while India’s civil aviation watchdog DGCA has directed Indian carriers to make sure that best pilots with 1,000 hours and co-pilots with 500 hours of flying hours function the 737 MAX eight.

"Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo are already congested and the only airport that has an expansion opportunity is Vnukovo," Al-Baker stated.

"We see a huge potential to grow the airport to bring more traffic, to intensify traffic, to grow there, to increase the duty free footprint."

Asked if Qatar Airways may consider obtaining a stake in Sheremetyevo, 30% of that may be on be offering by the airport's non-public shareholders, Al-Baker stated: "We cannot do more than one airport at the same place."

At house, at Hamad International Airport in Doha, passenger traffic was once at round 35 million other folks last year.

"This year we hope that we will exceed 42 million passengers but during the blockade we did lose nearly 10% of the traffic because it was all of a sudden. But we have recovered now," Al-Baker stated.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed an financial and diplomatic boycott on Qatar in 2017 over allegations that Qatar supports terrorism and is aligning itself with regional foe Iran. Qatar denies the allegations.