A merger between Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways "will never happen", according to the Dubai-based carrier's president Tim Clark.
That's despite Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker saying earlier this month that it had been his ambition to join his flyer with Emirates to create a "mega-carrier".
Emirates is the largest carrier in the world in terms of international passenger traffic. Qatar Airways won the Skytrax Airline of the Year award in both 2011 and 2012.
Clark welcomed the idea of a merger economically - but said no formal talks on the issue had ever taken place between the two airlines and that it would never be allowed politically by European carriers.
An Emirates and Qatar merger would have "seismic repercussions in the aeropolitical framework", Clark told Aviation Week. "You put the two together and you would face the most formidable international airline group that has ever been formed.
"That's why it will never happen."
© 7Days 2012
