Qatar Airways (Chalet 358, Static C6) has made significant progress in overcoming the consequences of a near-two-year boycott imposed by neighbors in 2017 and launched 25 routes since the blockade was put in place. In addition, the airline claims to have the second-largest air cargo operation in the world.

“2018 was a successful year for the Qatar Airways Group, marked by strong network growth, new aircraft deliveries—including the world’s first Airbus A350-1000—and a record number of sporting sponsorships,” a Qatar Airways spokesman told AIN.

“Looking ahead to 2019, we expect more of the same. Our group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, announced seven new routes at ITB in Berlin in March and more will follow during the year. We expect our cargo business, which has grown to become the world’s second biggest…to continue its progress.”

As of March 31, the Qatar Airways fleet stood at 250 aircraft, including 203 passenger aircraft (116 Airbus and 87 Boeing models), 25 freighters (16 Boeing 777Fs and two 747-8Fs, as well as seven Airbus A330-200Fs), and 22 aircraft in the Qatar Executive fleet—six of them classified as “private fleet.” Of the Airbus passenger fleet, 10 are A380s and 34 A350-900s, while there were also 30 Boeing 787-8s and 48 777-300ERs.

The airline has faced a two-year boycott on Qatar imposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other countries, but increasingly seems to be benefitting from the rigors of self-reliance that it has been forced to adopt. As an example, Qatar-based Baladna Food Industries is expected to launch an initial public offering later this year after airlifting in most of a herd of nearly 20,000 cows to supply a new dairy spawned by the boycott.

Al Baker said the blockade has not negatively impacted the airline, but it has had to make significant detours to avoid the airspace of the blockading countries—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt—thought to be one of a number of factors to mar recent profitability. The airline is understood to have seen further losses for the fiscal year ended March 31.

“Qatar Airways is still flying, and we are still expanding,” Al Baker said. “[The blockade] did impact us. It increased our flying time and put pressure on my operational cost, but it did not stop [our] will and determination to keep on our path of growth.”

Al Baker also endorsed the recent Doha Declaration, announced in February, which seeks to liberalize aviation regulation. “The Doha Declaration came after two days’ debate and discussion at the CAPA Qatar Aviation Aeropolitical and Regulatory Summit, the first aeropolitical event of its kind to be held in the Middle East,” the spokesman said. “Al Baker has referred to it as a ‘Manifesto for Liberalization of Market Access, Sustainability, and Engagement,’ and we wholeheartedly endorse it and call upon nations around the world to support its principles as a new way of working to take our industry forward.”

In April, Qatar Airways announced a “strategic” collaboration with McGill University’s Institute of Air and Space Law, which it said carried out “innovative” research and education in the field.

“We...welcome this partnership because, like Qatar Airways, the Institute embraces the liberalizing principles of the 2019 Doha Declaration and continues to emphasize the need for governments and the aviation industry to craft a new global regulatory system for aviation that reflects the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century,” said Brian F. Havel, the Institute’s director.

In March, the state of Qatar and the European Union initialed a Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (CATA) in Brussels and signed a memorandum of consultations (MoC) to open what the airline calls a new era of stronger cooperation and connectivity.

“This agreement is the first of its kind between the European Union and a GCC member state, providing a significant competitive edge to air carriers of both sides and a sustainable framework for the launch of future passenger and cargo operations in the few remaining restricted markets in Europe,” it said.

The country of Qatar has been scoring political capital out of the boycott and emphasizing a resort to self-help. Reuters even reported May 19 that Qatar Petroleum had been shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the UAE, after an outage to the Dolphin pipeline in April caused suspension of supplies to Abu Dhabi. In this way, Qatar hopes to show that its neighbors’ actions have had little or no impact on the Gulf state.