Qatar’s New Boeing Order To Cover National Airline’s Strategy Until 2045: Al-Meer

Qatar’s new Boeing order will cover the national airline’s strategy until 2045, Group Chief Executive Officer Badr Mohammed al-Meer has said.

Last week Qatar Airways placed the largest aircraft order in its history with manufacturing partner Boeing.

As part of its strategic fleet growth plan, the landmark Qatar Airways order includes up to 210 Boeing wide-body jets – 160 firm and 50 option, which is the largest wide-body order and the largest 787 Dreamliner order in the American aerospace company’s history.

Qatar Airways has also signed an agreement with GE Aerospace for more than 400 engines, including 60 GE9X and 260 GEnx engines, with additional options and spares, to power its next-generation Boeing 777-9 and Boeing 787 aircraft – the largest wide-body engine purchase in the history of GE Aerospace. 

Participating in a panel session at the Qatar Economic Forum Tuesday, al-Meer said, “Qatar Airways will start receiving new aircraft from May 2029. Our airline still sees huge passenger demand; our load factor is highest in the industry at an average 85.6%. In certain sectors, we are talking about 95 to 96%, and we see this case continuing.”

Asked why Qatar Airways made “such a big order’ and whether it “needs that many jets”, al-Meer noted, “For the last few years, and from what we see in the industry (now), the demand is still there. 

We have demand that today we cannot cater to. Our load factors are the highest in the industry and the highest in the history of Qatar Airways.”

“Our financial year starts in April. Again, we have recorded the best April (2025) in the history of Qatar Airways. We are also going to record the best May in the history of Qatar Airways.

 From the advance booking that we see for June and July, and from the numbers that we see, I think we will be comfortable to say that first quarter (of this financial year) will be better by a big margin compared to the first quarter of last financial year.”

On fleet expansion, al-Meer said, “We have started this process in March /April 2024. We have decided to create some sort of a competition between Boeing and Airbus and both engine manufacturers, Rolls-Royce and GE. This is to make sure that we get the best proposal or the best offer from both the engine manufacturers and aircraft manufacturers. It was a very close call between all of them.

“At a certain stage, it was leaning towards Airbus, then it went to Boeing. At the end, it was a very close call, and we decided to go to Boeing, who provided us with a better commercial and technical proposal.”

Asked whether another aircraft order from Qatar Airways can be seen in the next few years, he said, “For the time being, this is the order we have placed until we see how the market evolves.”

Recently, Qatar Airways Group announced that it has registered a 28% growth in its profit for the financial year 2024/2025 to more than QR7.85bn, which is the “strongest set” of financial results in its history.

The national airline’s profit shows an increase of more than QR1.7bn on the year before.

Key achievements of Qatar Airways Group over the last financial year include 25% minority stake in Virgin Australia.

Al-Meer said, “The investment in Virgin Australia was basically a strategic one. As you are aware, for so many years, Qatar Airways struggled to get more traffic rights to fly into Australia. Australia is a very important market for us.

“We were limited to 21 flights on a weekly basis. So, we have decided to go into this sort of partnership with Virgin Australia and have a wet lease agreement with them to increase...to add 28 more flights on a weekly basis.

 At the end of the day, this is a win-win situation for all of us...Qatar Airways, Virgin Australia, and most importantly, the Australian consumers.

“We want to create competition, which will drop the prices...give Australian consumers more options to choose from. And at the end of the day, passengers will choose what is best for them.”

He said Qatar Airways partnership with Virgin Australia, Malaysian Airlines and JAL will help the national carrier “balance between the East and the West”.

“There is a very high demand in the Far East, but we are restricted by bilaterals...by a certain number of flights. On the other hand, we have Open Sky agreements in Europe and in the US.”