Donald Trump’s statements about halting Muslims from coming to the United States didn’t keep Qatar Airways from announcing Tuesday it is adding nonstop service between Atlanta and Doha next month.
CEO Akbar Al Baker told reporters at a lavish press conference that he isn’t worried that a Trump election will limit the airlines’ market potential by scaring away Muslim passengers.
“You know politicians say things which really they don’t mean,” Al Baker said, adding that politicians usually do the opposite of what they promised voters.
That comes from a man working for an absolute monarch from a country that hasn’t had national elections in years.
He said he and the presumptive Republican nominee were friends “regardless of what he says.”
Their shared backgrounds in business give them a similar point of view focused ultimately on economic development, he said.
“He’s a businessman. We look at things in a different way,” he said. “My only advice to him would be he should tone down the insulting statements to people. You don’t have to be so aggressive with people.”
Al Baker has been a businessman in Doha for more than 25 years and heads several aviation-related businesses as well as the government-owned airline.
Qatar Airways isn’t the only Islamic airline adding service to Atlanta since Trump’s rise. Turkish Airlines began daily service at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday.
Al Baker reminded the press that foreign observers expressed similar fears when in 1980 Ronald Reagan won the Republican nomination for his get-tough, pro-American rhetoric.
“People were skeptics about Reagan, and he was one of your greatest leaders. So you see, you can’t always judge a person on what he says,” Al Baker said.
