Qatar Airways CEO “dismayed” over airport fee hike, GMR denies plans
02 Feb 2012, 4:54 PM
Eleanor Johnstone
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker has warned that the airline will re-consider flying to the Maldives if airport operator GMR maintains its apparent plan to raise airport handling fees at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) by 51 percent.
Reuters reported that the airline was “‘dismayed’” over what it understood to be GMR’s plan to increase the handling fee at some future date, and suggested such a move would “threaten Quatar Airways’ continued presence in the Maldives.”
Noting that the Maldives’ economy is based on tourism, Akbar Al Baker called the planned increase “totally unreasonable.”
“If we or any other major player withdraws services because of these unwarranted and draconian measures, it will be the people of the Maldives who will lose out, affecting their livelihoods as they rely heavily on the tourism industry,” he said in a statement released on Wednesday.
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