Qatar Airways has ditched plans to buy a minority stake in American Airlines.
The Doha-based carrier announced earlier this year it was seeking to take a 10 per cent stake in its fellow Oneworld airline, despite a lack of enthusiasm from American’s management for the move.
But Qatar Airways, which owns 20 per cent of British Airways’ owner IAG, dropped plans for its “proposed passive financial investment” in American.
“Further review of the proposed financial investment, taking into account the latest public disclosure of American Airlines, has demonstrated that the investment no longer meets our objectives,” said Qatar Airways in a statement.
“Qatar Airways will continue to investigate alternative investment opportunities in the US and elsewhere that do meet our objectives.
“Qatar Airways will continue to seek opportunities to invest in global aviation to support the airline's goal to offer the best possible travel experience for its customers.”
American’s CEO Doug Parker had expressed surprise about Qatar Airways’ original plans to take a shareholding in his company.
“While anyone can purchase our shares in the open market, we aren’t particularly excited about Qatar’s outreach,” said Parker in a letter to staff in June.
“We find it puzzling given our extremely public stance on the illegal subsidies that Qatar, Emirates and Etihad have all received from their governments over the years.”