A top European Union transport official accepted free flights with Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) courtesy of the Qatari government as his team negotiated a major aviation deal vital to the airline, Politico has revealed.

Henrik Hololei, director general of the European Commission’s department for mobility and transport, flew business class free-of-charge nine times between 2015 and 2021, the newspaper found through freedom of information requests.

Six of these occurred while negotiations were taking place for the European Union-Qatar aviation agreement, which was signed in October 2021 after more than five years of work but later thrown into doubt as an investigation began into how the talks were conducted amid a snowballing cash-for-favours scandal at the European Parliament. All EU countries must formally ratify the accord before it comes into force, a process that could take years.

While Hololei has declined to comment on Politico’s findings, an EC spokesperson defended the decision to accept free flights. “All the missions detailed [...] were authorised and conducted in accordance with the applicable rules,” the representative said, adding that potential conflicts of interest had been “carefully considered and excluded.”

In January 2017, seven months after work began on the open skies deal, Hololei took free Qatar Airways flights from Brussels National to Doha and back, paid for by the government of Qatar, the documents showed. The EC spokesperson said this visit was not part of the negotiations, adding that normally the institution covers such expenses but “in certain cases, third parties may offer to cover the entirety or part of the respective mission expenses” - in which case “all forms of potential conflict of interests have to be excluded as a condition for the mission to be authorised.”

Hololei also flew free with the Qatari flag carrier in 2019 to an Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) meeting, a body that lists Qatar Airways’ CEO on its executive committee, with the organisation paying for these business-class tickets. A similar trip occurred in November 2021.

In February 2020, he again flew Qatar Airways for free, to speak at an event in Doha staged by the Centre for Aviation (CAPA), seats which the carrier confirmed to Politico it paid for, “as is customary when requested by the organisers of such events.” Representatives of both AACO and CAPA told the newspaper that arranging transport for speakers courtesy of the events’ sponsors is standard practice.

Contacted by ch-aviation, Qatar Airways commented: “Qatar Airways can confirm that as the host airline for both AACO and CAPA conferences taking place in Doha, guests/speakers were flown by the airline to the conferences as guests of the two organisations, as is customary when requested by the organisers of such events.”