Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, who has sparred with Delta Air Lines executives over policy issues in recent years, is apologizing for referring to U.S. airline flight attendants as “grandmothers.”
“I should like to apologize unreservedly to those offended by my recent remarks which compared Qatar Airways cabin crew with cabin crew on U.S. carriers,” Al Baker said Wednesday.
In Dublin, Ireland, last week to help launch a new Dublin-Doha route, Al Baker told an audience that “the average age of my cabin crew is only 26 years.”
“So there is no need for you to travel on these crap American carriers,” Al Baker said. “You know you’re always being served by grandmothers on American carriers.”
Delta’s senior vice president of in-flight service, Allison Ausband, called Al Baker’s remarks “rude” and “misogynistic.” The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents pilots at Delta and other big airlines, called for an apology.
In Wednesday’s statement, released by a communications firm for Qatar Airways, Al Baker said the remarks “were made informally at a private gala dinner, following comments about the Qatar Airways cabin service, and were in no way intended to cause offense.”
He said flight attendants “play a huge role in the safety and comfort of passengers, irrespective of their age or gender or familial status … I have a high regard for the value that I see long-serving staff members bringing through their experience and dedication.”
Al Baker last year was asked about complaints by U.S. airline chiefs — Delta’s Richard Anderson among them — that carriers from the Persian Gulf region use government subsidies to unfairly fuel growth.
Al Baker called the criticism “baloney,” adding, “I am ready to challenge Anderson. Let him come face to face with me in any forum. I will hang him on a wall.”
When Qatar Airways launched Atlanta-Doha flights last year, it sparked a dispute with Delta over a gate at the airport and prompted Delta to withdraw its sponsorship of the Fox Theatre, which hosted a gala for Qatar.
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