Qatar Airways has hired the dual British and Irish airline executive Calum Laming as its new Chief Customer Officer, a newly created senior leadership position for the Doha-based carrier, which involves oversight of the entire customer experience under one coordinated focus.
Laming is perhaps best known for presiding over the ‘Brunchgate’ scandal at British Airways, where he served in the same role between June 2022 and March of this year (although he reportedly took a back seat and wasn’t involved in day-to-day decision making since at least December 2025).
The October 2024 Brunchgate scandal is so named because British Airways took the highly unpopular decision to start serving cheaper breakfast dishes in its long-haul Club World business class cabin on flights departing around lunchtime.
At the same time, British Airways introduced a cheaper ‘Light Bites’ menu for premium passengers on overnight flights from the U.S. East Coast to London, as well as some of its longest flights from London to Cape Town and Hong Kong.
Passenger feedback over the unpopular changes was both swift and forceful, and British Airways faced a public relations disaster over the new menus that no one had asked for, or, it seemed, wanted.
It didn’t take long before British Airways started to quietly roll back the changes, suggesting that passenger demands had suddenly changed.
Laming’s time at British Airways wasn’t, however, completely unsuccessful. In fact, Laming is credited with some real passenger-pleasing initiatives, including creating the template design for a global premium lounge upgrade project, which debuted in Dubai and Miami to much praise from frequent flyers.
The designs will eventually roll out across BA’s sprawling but dilapidated lounge network at its Heathrow Terminal 5 hub. He also oversaw the redesign of BA’s short-haul fleet cabins and the design of a new First Class seat that will debut on the Airbus A380 later this year.
Laming started his aviation career at British Airways’ now-defunct low-cost subsidiary GO Fly, where he initially worked part-time in a call center before becoming a member of cabin crew at the airline. Laming was the senior cabin crew member on the airline’s last ever flight in April 2003.
He then went on to work in a number of brand and marketing roles at Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand, and Etihad Airways before landing at Vueling, which is also owned by BA’s parent company, IAG, as its chief customer officer.
Laming suddenly took a backseat from his job as Chief Customer Officer at British Airways in December 2025, with chief executive Sean Doyle explaining that Laming only ever intended to take on the mammoth role for three to four years because it can be so demanding.
Laming never sent an official goodbye message to workers.
Since Laming’s departure, British Airways is still searching for a new Chief Customer Officer, although BA’s loss is now Qatar Airways’ gain.
Laming will officially take on the role in November 2026, having been picked by the airline’s relatively new chief executive, Hamad Al-Khater.
Al-Khater has only been in his role since December 2025, when the government-owned airline suddenly replaced Badr Al Meer, who had only had the top job for less than two years. Since becoming chief executive, Al-Khater hasn’t been very visible, foregoing the kinds of media appearances that his predecessors enjoyed.
Along with Laming the Qatar Airways’ new chief customer officer, Al-Khater has also appointed Abdulla Ali as the airline’s first ever chief operating officer, which, as the name suggests, is responsible for oversight of the carrier’s operational functions.
