Qatar Airways firmly rejects interest in SpiceJet

Qatar Airways issued a statement from its company headquarters in Doha, denying recent reports that the airline is interested in obtaining a stake in the low-cost Indian airline SpiceJet.

Qatar Airways fervently denied reports of talks pursuing a commercial stake in the Indian airline and affirmed there is also no interest in engaging in any form of partnership.

News reports claiming such an interest are inaccurate, according to the Qatar Airways statement. The airline said false claims had also been made in news reports that an interline agreement was in the works between the two companies, and that negotiations were set to continue in the near future.

Qatar Airways does not, however, have any form of interline agreement with SpiceJet. An interline agreement is the simplest form of relations between any two airlines, and Qatar Airways states it is not planning to pursue any such arrangement in the future.

This is not the first time that rumors of Qatar Airways interest in SpiceJet have come up. Similar stories went out in January 2013, and Qatar Airways stated it suspects such stories are a tactic to increase market and share value for SpiceJet. In other words, Qatar Airways executives think the rumors of interest in SpiceJet are deliberately spread to influence the Indian carrier’s share values.

Despite the firm lack of interest in SpiceJet, Qatar Airways does confirm it is interested in another of the region’s airlines, the Indian carrier IndiGo.