Qatar Airways owns 9.99% of Cathay Pacific, 5% of China Southern (double American’s stake), and 10% of LATAM. They owned 49% of Air Italy before that carrier shut down. Their biggest remaining investment is in IAG, the parent of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and soon Air Europa.
Qatar owned 21.4% of the British Airways parent – and has now increased that to 25.1%.
While Qatar cannot take a majority stake in the airline group, company restrictions on foreign ownership were relaxed last month. As of January 19, 39.5% of IAG shares were held by non-E.U. entities. It’s unclear how much growth in the Qatar Airways stake increases that percentage, as it’s not clear how much of the 3.7% acquired by Qatar had been in non-E.U. hands already.
Most carriers in the group are part of a transatlantic joint venture with American Airlines. American rebuffed an investment by Qatar and terminated codesharing with the Doha-based carrier.