Qatar Airways is not interested in acquiring a 12 percent stake in International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, its CEO has said.
Akbar Al Baker told Aviation Week the Doha-based airline is “too busy” with its own expansion to purchase a stake in the firm, but said it remained interested in acquiring a share in an Indian carrier.
“We are too busy with our own expansion,” Al Baker said at the Farnborough International Air Show.
Spanish lender Bankia, which owns a 12 percent stake in IAG, has come under increasing pressure to sell its investment after asking for a US$24bn bailout, the largest state rescue in Spain, last month. Its stake in IAG, which was formed by the merger of BA and Iberia in 2010, is worth €419m (US$527m) at current prices.
Rival Gulf carrier Etihad Airways has completed several overseas deals in the last six months as it increases competitiveness with Qatar Airways and Dubai’s Emirates. The Abu Dhabi-based airline owns shares in Virgin Australia, Aer Lingus, airberlin and Air Seychelles.
IAG CEO Willie Walsh said the firm would be interested in having other airline as shareholders as long as they remained “neutral”.
“There are investors interested in replacing Bankia, and in my opinion it is not a question of if, but when they are going to sell,” he said last month.
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