British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) will temporarily operate its A380-800 on the London Heathrow - Doha Hamad International sector between November 18 and January 8 to help cater for expected FIFA World Cup crowds. British Airways is reportedly taking over a Heathrow slot pair allocated to Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) for the period. With 469 seats, the British Airways A380 offers around one-third more seats than the Qatar Airways B777-300ERs normally used on this particular service.
According to Simple Flying, the A380 will operate BA123 out of London Heathrow every evening over the 51-day period, arriving into Doha the following morning. After around eight hours on the ground in Doha, the A380 will work a mid-afternoon departure for an early evening arrival back into London. The flights are showing up in British Airways' online timetables but not yet appearing in booking engines.
During the World Cup, the Qatari government is expecting over 200,000 passengers a day to fly into Doha. The government and Qatar Airways has made several significant operational changes to cater to this, including handing over slots and gates to other operators and reopening the old Doha International Airport. Qatar Airways has cut the number of flights it will operate over the period by around 7%, with services to South Asia the most impacted.
Over the World Cup period, Oneworld airlines British Airways and Qatar Airways are together timetabling up to nine daily roundtrips between Heathrow and Doha. Normally, British Airways flies the route once daily. According to the ch-aviation capacities module, Qatar Airways will offer 20,720 seats on the Heathrow - Doha sector in the seven days from November 18, 2022. Factoring in flights to and from London Gatwick, Manchester International, Edinburgh, and Cardiff, the airline will offer 35,179 seats over the seven days.
