Nov. 8, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --
Shubhra Tandon
, believes: “In every economic slowdown, there are still millionaires to be made”. Recently, Qatar Airways became the world’s first airline to use natural gas on a commercial passenger flight from London Gatwick to Doha. Mr Baker spoke to Business Line on the experience of using the new fuel technology and Qatar Airways’ plans for India, on the occasion of its launching operations from Goa, becoming the first full-service international airline to flyi to the land of beaches.
Excerpts from the interview:
What are the opportunities that Qatar Airways sees in India?
A lot of people look at India as a place that has huge volumes of traffic with a huge population. But they don’t realise something — that India has a middle-class population as big as the entire population of the United States.
It also has a growing middle-class. There is a huge opportunity here. India is an economic superpower in the making. And people like us, Qatar Airways, want to be part and parcel of this growth in India. This is especially because Qatar has such close economic and political relations with India that it does not enjoy with many other countries, except, of course, within the GCC.
What are the challenges you see here in the current time of economic slowdown?
Well, we feel that in every economic slowdown there are still millionaires to be made! Every economic downturn has certain bright spots and we see India as a bright spot. Compared to the effects of the economic downturn everywhere else in the world, India has not been badly affected, because the whole dynamics of the Indian economy is different from other countries.
People in India do not leverage themselves against the huge debts that Western communities or populations exposed themselves to.
Other countries are dependent on their Governments to fund economic development. India does not depend on the Government, it’s the other way around here.
Coming to the issue of employment, how many people were employed as a result of operating to Amritsar and Goa?
We have recruited 18 or 19 more people just now. And this will grow. Also, don’t forget that, as we grow as an airline, we are also recruiting Indians in our hub.
What percentage would this be?
Sixty percent of the employees in Qatar Airways are from India. Not only in the airline, but in ground-handling, in catering…we have many other services that we provide, in airport operations, engineering, etc.
A while ago you had threatened to cancel orders from Boeing. (NYSE:BA) Is that likely to impact India expansions?
We had an issue with the manufacturer.
