The No.1 Airline Gets Its Wings Clipped

The blockade of Qatar Airways’ home base is causing problems for the carrier.

- Carol Matlack and Deena Kamel Yousef

You’d think Qatar Airways, voted the world’s best airline in a passenger survey last month, would have no trouble keeping its seats filled. Instead, it’s had to cancel scores of flights after four neighboring countries barred it from their airspace; it’s also being kicked out of an American Airlines Group Inc. code share agreement that eased access to the crucial U.S. market. On July 12, Qatar Air’s brash chief executive officer, Akbar Al Baker, issued a rare public apology after his description of U.S. flight attendants as “grandmothers” was condemned by other airline executives and labor unions. The carrier has now been pressed into service to fly 4,000 dairy cows into the country on cargo planes to assure fresh milk supplies during the blockade.

It’s a humbling turn for an airline that until recently seemed unstoppable. Over the past decade, Qatar Air more than tripled its annual traffic, to 32 million passengers, and bought hundreds of planes, with some $41 billion still on order, to fly travelers through its desert hub in Doha. It took stakes in three other airlines, including 20 percent of British Airways Plc’s corporate parent, and is angling to buy 10 percent of American Airlines. Qatar Air has become a darling of high-end travelers, thanks to solicitous customer service and in-flight amenities such as suites that convert into private meeting rooms. It was named the world’s best airline by ratings group Skytrax at this year’s International Paris Air Show—the fourth time it’s won the award since 2011.