BA boss rates the prospects for Middle East airlines

British Airways boss Willie Walsh has warned that Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways could lose out to regional rivals Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways, in the race to establish global aviation hubs. 



In an interview to be published in the September issue of CEO Middle East, Walsh said: “It is going to be difficult to see all three establish genuine global positions…there is a good argument to be made for two of those maybe.”



Rating the Gulf’s three big carriers, Walsh said: “Doha [is] likely to achieve its goal. The other one is likely to be Emirates [and] Etihad clearly has ambitions for that as well.

“If I was to rate them I think Emirates and Qatar have a slight lead over Etihad in terms of developing their global hub strategy and global network.”

According to Bloomberg, Emirates, the world’s biggest airline by international traffic, needs more than US$28 billion through 2017 to expand its fleet of Boeing and Airbus jets.

Bloomberg quoted Gary Chapman, Emirates’ president of group services in charge of finances.

Chapman said the financing plan is “substantial because it’s pretty close to double what we’ve done in the previous 14 years”.

Khalid Howladar, a Dubai-based senior analyst at Moody’s, told Bloomberg, “Emirates is one of the strongest pillars of the regional economy with pretty solid cashflows and growth prospects. So dependent on timing and pricing, investor demand should be high.”