Speaking at the Capa Acte Global Summit in Amsterdam, Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said he believed countries around the world were retreating from the open skies philosophy.
And he added some airlines were being worse affected than others, depending on where they are based.
Al Baker said: “In my opinion there’s been a huge protectionist tendency that’s now coming into place and not just the US. The same is happening in many other countries; Europe is the second example.
“What is really worrying me is that I am fine when it comes to dealing with everybody fairly, but when you target the Gulf carriers, Asean and Turkey for this kind of negotiation it very much proves people like myself and [Air Asia chief executive] Tony [Fernandes] are being targeted.”
He added those countries which were still engaging in open negotiations with airlines were reaping the benefits as a result.
Al Baker said: “Countries that are actually opening up to us see that aviation plays an important part and they are now looking at tourism as one of the big drivers in economic development and job creation, which is very important.”
However, he admitted while both sides taking part in liberalism negotiations need to be more transparent, airlines such as Qatar Airways needed to be more straightforward following recent and ongoing arguments.
He said: “We are accused of being subsidised hugely by governments creating competition that is artificial.
“All this will disappear when people realise what we’re doing and carriers that are making a noise about us now were doing it years ago.”
Instead, Al Baker said they should learn to cooperate better and cited the example of successes achieved by Qantas and Emirates as well as Qatar’s own relationship with IAG.
“We’re benefitting from each other,” he said. “I’m really very open and we feel cooperation will help each other and we can exchange passengers with one another.
“I will use this very important forum to let airlines know it is no good wasting time trying to avoid co-operation.”
