Any stock market flotation of Qatar Airways has been pushed back into the distant future, the chief executive of the Gulf state's flag carrier said on Thursday.

'I don't think it will be anywhere closer to five to eight years because in our opinion that is the time it will take for things to turn around,' Akbar Al Baker told journalists at the ITB Berlin travel fair.

Qatar Airways indicated late in 2010 it was planning an initial public offering (IPO) in early 2012 after three consecutive years of profit. As recently as last June, Al Baker had said the carrier could seek a stock market listing by the end of 2011.

The IPO 'will be postponed for a long time because we feel it will take a very long time to recover from the economic situation that the world is in today,' he said on Thursday.

Al Baker said the IPO plan would have been to list 50 per cent of the company's shares but limit foreign ownership of stock to 20-25 per cent. – Reuters