Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) is planning to place its impending B737-10s with an unspecified subsidiary, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker told aviation analyst John Strickland in an interview quoted by the Gulf News.
"We have bought those for our subsidiary company - we feel that cancelling the A321-200neo unilaterally by Airbus is illegal, and we will let the court decide on that issue," he said, clarifying that the B737 MAX and the A321neo were independent plans for the holding.
The Qatari carrier signed a Memorandum of Understanding for twenty-five B737-10s with a further 25 options in early 2022. It was the second time it signed for the Boeing aircraft. The first batch of sixty B737-8s was covered by a Letter of Intent from 2016 and was due to join the fleet of Air Italy (Milan Malpensa). Ultimately, only five aircraft were ever delivered to the Italian carrier. They were returned when Air Italy collapsed in early 2020, and Qatar Airways never firmed the remaining order for B737 MAX.
Qatar Airways did not provide any further information as to which subsidiary would operate the B737-10s under the new MoU. The carrier currently holds stakes in IAG International Airlines Group (25.1%), LATAM Airlines Group (10%), and Cathay Pacific (9.6%).
The carrier did not respond to ch-aviation's request for further information.
Qatar Airways had an order for forty A321-200Ns and ten A321-200NY(XLR)s, which was unilaterally cancelled by the manufacturer due to the ongoing legal dispute over the airworthiness of Qatar's A350s. It does not have any other new-generation narrowbodies on order.
