Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker has been voted onto IATA, the Board of Governors of the global aviation industry body.

 

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker has been voted onto the Board of Governors of the global aviation industry body, International Air Transport Association (IATA). Al Baker was selected by fellow airline executives attending IATA’s annual World Air Transport Summit in Beijing this week.


His is a newlycreated position to increase representation for Middle East carriers on the revamped 10-member IATA board. Qatar Airways has also announced an engaging social media photo contest titled ‘Reflections’. Through this contest, the airline is giving away attractive prizes – Business and Economy Class air tickets and a total of 1.6 million Privilege Club Qmiles. The airline is inviting up to eight photos under the categories namely – Vibrant Cultures, Magnificent Cities, Breathtaking Nature and Exciting Journeys.

“Professional and amateur photography enthusiasts may upload photos, share them across their social network and invite support from their friends, family and followers in the form of votes. They can also view, vote on, and share photos submitted by other contestants to accumulate points. Each point they thus earn converts into a lucky draw entry,” reads the press release. Prizes include 10 Business and 50 Economy Class tickets. Qatar Airways Privilege Club programme is offering a mammoth 1.6 million Qmiles to be shared among the winners.


Qatar Airways has also enhanced its operations with the acquisition of comprehensive aircraft recovery equipment – the first airline in the world to own the complete state-ofthe- art kit. There are just 11 complete kits globally, but parts within each kit are owned separately by individual airlines and airports worldwide. At an investment of US$3.2 million, the equipment enables the airline’s Doha hub to be capable of recovering equipment parts of any aircraft type following an incident which renders an aircraft non operational.


In the span of just two weeks, Qatar Airways has expanded passenger services to Iraq with the launch of its second destination in the country –the capital city of Baghdad. The Doha-based airline is operating four-flightsa- week non-stop on the Baghdad route. The move came just two weeks after Qatar Airways launched flights, also fourtimes- a-week, to the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.