Al Baker will be succeeded by Badr Mohammed Al Meer,
currently chief operating officer of Hamad International Airport, the source
familiar with the matter said.
Al Baker's resignation was announced to staff in an official
circular, seen by Reuters, from Chairman Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi who paid tribute
to his "27 years of remarkable service".
Qatar Airways could not immediately be reached for comment.
Al Baker was appointed CEO in 1997, three years after the
airline's launch, and has been instrumental in transforming Qatar Airways into
a major international carrier that competes against the likes of Dubai's
Emirates and Turkish Airlines.
He also became synonymous with a shift in the global
aviation map towards the Gulf, as carriers swept up passengers transiting
between East and West, and regularly clashed with U.S. and European airline
chiefs on trade and labour issues.
Al Baker frequently made headlines by goading Western plane
giants Airbus and Boeing over their strategies, or factory workmanship, and led
the airline during a bitter recent dispute with Airbus over damage to the
surface of A350 aircraft.
Airbus and Qatar Airways settled at the end of January,
averting a rare and potentially damaging UK court trial in the jet sector.
Speaking earlier this year in Berlin, Al Baker called the settlement a
"win-win".
He also became a public voice for Qatar during a diplomatic
boycott by neighbouring Arab states in 2017-2021, and pushed a strategy of
keeping routes open during the pandemic to bolster the presence of the national
brand on the world stage.
At times, his habit of making off-the-cuff remarks garnered
criticism and would subsequently require him to apologise, such as in 2018 when
he said a woman would not able to do his job.
Al Baker's retirement was first reported on X, formerly
known as Twitter, by aviation analyst Alex Macheras.
The move came after it was announced on Sunday that Qatar's
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid Al Thani had replaced Al Baker as the country's top
tourism official. No reason was given for the decision.
It was not immediately clear whether Al Baker was retiring
from other posts, which include serving as the chief executive of Hamad
International Airport and of Qatar Duty Free.