Forbes highlighted Qatar's violation of fair competition rules in the US airspace (the Open Skies Agreement) by using an Italian company as a cover for Qatar Airways' activities in violation of pledges made to the United States earlier this year. 

In 2017, Qatar purchased 49% of Air Italy, which very quickly thereafter adopted a Qatar strategy: Build a hub with rapid expansion of U.S. service, enabled by lots of new airplanes purchased with government money.

Last week, Delta arranged a reporters’ conference call where the financials were spelled out: Subsidized Qatar remains deeply unprofitable, suffering an operating loss of $1.4 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018. Over the years, it has received about $24 billion in government subsidies.

Air Italy’s predecessor airline lost 52 million euros in 2015, 46 million euros in 2016 and 57 million euros in 2017. Larger losses are anticipated in 2018.

Today Delta CEO Ed Bastian posted a column entitled “Air Italy’s Mysterious Benefactor” on Delta’s website. “Qatari state subsidies flow to an obscure Italian airline, circumventing a key agreement with the U.S. and putting thousands of American jobs at risk,” Bastian wrote.

“Qatar is using the tiny, close-to-defunct Air Italy to skirt its promise to the U.S. to not add so-called ‘Fifth Freedom’ flights to the U.S,” he said.

As for aircraft, “Qatar has been giving its new acquisition billions of dollars’ worth of new airplanes, including Boeing 787 and 737 jets, with plans to deploy larger Boeing 777 and A350s as well," Bastian said.