British Airways to second B777 pilots to Qatar Airways

British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) has notified its B777-rated pilots of a secondment opportunity at Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int’l) for six months during the Winter 2021/22 season.

The Qatari carrier needs 40 pilots – 20 captains and 20 first officers – starting in October and November 2021. Pilots will continue to be employed and paid by British Airways, although their remuneration will be based on the amount of flying done for Qatar Airways.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, British Airways currently operates forty-three B777-200(ER)s and sixteen B777-300(ER)s, while Qatar Airways’ B777 fleet comprises nine B777-200(LR)s, twenty-six B777-200Fs, and forty-eight B777-300(ER)s.

Qatar Airways owns a 25.1% stake in IAG International Airlines Group, British Airways’ Spain-based parent holding. Both carriers are members of Oneworld. They have cooperated in the past with Qatar Airways wet-leasing both A320 Family and A330-200 aircraft to the UK carrier in 2017-2018.

Separately, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar al Baker has told the Executive Traveller that it will reactivate five of its A380-800s as early as next month. The aircraft will be used to cover for the A350s, which have been partially grounded over Qatar’s allegations of hull deterioration. The carrier also halted any further deliveries of A350s. Qatar Airways operates thirty-four A350-900s and nineteen A350-1000s. The grounding of more than a dozen of them forced the airline to resurrect its A330-300s, previously slated for retirement.

al Baker, who previously called the acquisition of A380s Qatar’s biggest fleet mistake, said that in 2022, all ten A380s might be reactivated.

“At the moment we are looking at flying five, but we may have to fly all ten… We grounded the A380s at the beginning of the pandemic, and we never wanted to fly them again. Unfortunately, with the issues we are having with the Airbus A350s that have been grounded by our regulator, we have no alternative but to fly the A380s,” he said.