Qatar Airways is remaining tight-lipped on press speculation that it is to join the British Airways-backed Oneworld alliance.
An announcement could be made next Monday, although Qatar Airways and Oneworld declined to comment, according to today’s Financial Times.
BA parent International Airlines Group has been in talks with Qatar Airways about the possibility of the airlines creating a joint business on routes between the UK and Australia.
This emerged as Qantas announced that it was to end a long-standing joint venture with BA on routes between the UK and Australia in favour of a tie-up with Emirates.
Qatar Airways, which has its hub in Doha, has been in discussions for several months about joining Oneworld, the newspaper reported.
But the airline’s chief executive Akbar al-Baker, when approached by Reuters at a conference in UAE, dismissed the reports as “rumour”.
Gulf carriers have so far held off from joining global airline alliances as they build their own large networks.