In late June, Alexander Corwell from Reuters reported Qatar Airways was considering buying 4.75% of the stock of American Airlines and then increasing towards 10% at a cost of $800 million. On the face of it, Qatar Airlines has partnered with One-world with a number of airlines and owning shares would cement relationships. Qatar and American could do something similar to Qatar and British Airways have revenue sharing partnerships with their respect hubs in London and Doha. In terms of business and helping the passengers who fly on their planes it could be a very good thing to do.

On the news pages, Qatar is being having a diplomatic dispute with its neighbors and that calls into question should American Airlines have a stronger relationship with Qatar Airlines. Can you separate the politics from the business of airlines? In many instances running an airline is very linked to the country of origin’s policies and government subsidies and at times government long-term plans.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every profitable company has opportunities which come before it, some they do and many they wait and see because they can and often times saying no is the order of the day. When the news headlines begin to filter into your company, you always have to remember why is the company profitable? how does it generate its highest margin business? Then you can decide do I hold or look for better alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.