It seems that the talk of Qatar Airways coming to help British Airways has come to pass, with the first few planes en-route from Doha to London Heathrow.
Qatar Airways Airbus A321 at Doha Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The first three planes have been identified have already taken off, en-route to London by FlightRadar24.
3 Qatar Airways A320 en route to Heathrow to fly for Brititsh Airways during the 16 day cabin crew strikehttps://t.co/6Ygvb6xCmA pic.twitter.com/aEagdPoyVA
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) June 30, 2017
FlightRadar24 has also identifed another 5 aircraft are due to leave for London – making it a total of eight aircraft being wet leased by British Airways.
Another 5 Qatar A320 are expected to leave Doha between 11 and 13 UTC time. https://t.co/Lgrz5u4jHA
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) June 30, 2017
These aircraft are being used in the upcoming British Airways Mixed fleet crew strike.
British Airways applied to wet-lease nine A320 family aircraft. It seems that authorisation has been granted.
Compared to the usual experience aboard British Airways, the Qatar Airways planes are different. British Airways use a Eurobusiness Layout that focuses on capacity and can seat up to 168 passengers (give or take the size of the business cabin which looses two passengers per row).
Qatar Airways operate their A320 in a 2-2 formation at the front, with 12 business class seats and 132 economy class seats, and a seatback TV in every seat. Business seats also have power too.
Could British Airways turned to other European airlines to help? Maybe – however, as we’re now in the summer flying season, a lot of the wet-leasable capacity has already been accounted for by other airlines.
However, bringing these planes 3259 miles to fly around Europe is a bold – and risky move.
Which I suspect will go down as well as a lead brick with the all the British Airways unions.
British Airways is still maintaining the following advice for its passengers:
We recognise the uncertainty that Mixed Fleet Unite’s threat is causing and would like to reassure customers that the vast majority of our services will be unaffected.
We can already confirm the following details:
All flights to and from London Gatwick, London City and Stansted will operate as normal as will our recently launched weekend only Mediterranean services to and from Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.
The vast majority of flights to and from London Heathrow will operate as normal.
If you currently have a booking, please ensure that your email and phone details are up to date by using Manage My Booking on our website so that we can continue providing you with updates on your flight.
As usual – check before you fly.
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