Qatar Airways (QA), which had earlier felt the adverse effects of the illegal siege, said it had overcome it and was growing steadily.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the airline was now thinking of introducing a new brand of economy seats in their planes. It had earlier introduced an award-winning business class seat — the QSuite — in its aircraft.

The new seats, which aims to provide maximum comfort for this category of passengers, will be introduced in March 2019.

“We’ll never go lower than 32 inches of legroom. We’re also thinking of making Wi-Fi free,” he was quoted as saying by Qatar Tribune.

Al Baker, speaking to media during a roundtable luncheon at the Peninsula Hotel in New York, also revealed an interest in investing in the American market.

“If there’re opportunities, where we see there’re synergies, we’ll continue to invest in the American market,” he said.

“You know there’s a lot of resistance to Qatar Airways’ investing in the three major US carriers. Yet, when an opportunity comes and we’ve the blessings of the US government, yes, we’d like to invest. This is the largest aviation market, and any stable CEO of an airline would want to invest in the US,” he added.

Al Baker said Qatar Airways had successfully recovered from the illegal siege imposed by neighbouring countries last year.

“We’ve recovered from the impact of the blockade. We’re the winners; we’ll keep growing. Our cargo business grew more than 30% last year,” he was quoted as saying by Qatar Tribune.

Al Baker said the company has a large order book for both Airbus and Boeing for the A321LR, 787-9 and the 777X aircraft.

“The Boeing 777X is going into the fatigue test. Qatar Airways is the global launch customer for this aircraft,” he said.