Thabet Musleh

Thabet Musleh is Vice President of Qatar Duty Free (QDF), the Middle East’s second-largest duty free retailer and over the past three years its most dynamic. He is the man charged with driving all commercial revenues at the state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Doha, including the extraordinary HIA Expansion project opened in time for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Qatar Duty Free has been the region’s brightest light throughout the pandemic, investing heavily in its consumer and commercial offer and this year opening a flurry of stores and F&B outlets across the existing South and North Nodes. Then, of course, there is the Expansion project, which surely ranks as the modern-day wonder of the airport world.

Thabet leads the company’s retail, inflight, food & beverage and in-house advertising divisions. He brings more than a decade of experience in the retail sector. He joined QDF’s parent company Qatar Airways in 2016 as Head of Retail Operations for the national carrier’s duty free business. Prior to that, he spent ten years at World Duty Free Group in the UK, holding a number of senior roles across London’s three biggest airports: Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.