News
Qatar Airways to lease nine aircraft to British Airways?
June 30th 2017
British Airways (BA) has applied to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for approval to wet-lease nine Qatar Airways A320/A321 aircraft from July 1-16. Read More » The filing indicated the contracts may be extended beyond July for a maximum of two months.
BA is desperate for additional aircraft. Its ‘mixed fleet’ cabin crew are planning their hitherto longest strike during the first two weeks of July, which will inevitably result in the grounding of many planes.
Salary demands have largely been met, but they are protesting about sanctions meted out to them during their initial strikes, which included the withdrawal of travel concessions.
BA’s unionized crew has rejected the Qatar Airways lease deal and argued that Qatar Airways’ “inferior flight duty time limitations and rest requirements” are not compliant with European Union regulations.
The union said “that if a bilateral international agreement between the EU and Qatar covering wet leasing does not exist, then approval for the lease would not comply and should be automatically refused”. Qatar Airways owns 20.01% of British Airways parent, the International Airlines Group (IAG).
The CAA said it was “currently processing an application from British Airways to wet lease nine Qatar-registered aircraft. Under European regulations specific approval is required for an EU airline, such as British Airways, to wet lease aircraft from an airline based outside of Europe. The UK Department for Transport will approve or reject the application taking into account advice from the CAA. We can confirm we have so far received a number of comments on the application, which will be taken into consideration”.
Qatar Airways has approximately 20% surplus capacity following its diplomatic standoff with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE.
The airline has appealed to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for mediation. A first round of talks is to be held today, June 30. Reuters said Qatari transport minister, Jassim Saif Al Sulaiti, is lobbying for more international air corridors to be constructed over Gulf waters now overseen by the UAE.
