Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) took delivery of its first B737-8 on April 14, 2023. Leased from Air Lease Corporation, A7-BSC (msn 43329) was delivered from Everett via Reykjavik Keflavik to Doha Hamad International but has yet to be inducted into revenue service, although it operated a test flight around the Qatari hub on April 16. Qatar Airways has not filed the schedules for the type yet.
The aircraft is the first of nine B737-8s originally destined for S7 Airlines (S7, Novosibirsk) which were recently picked up by the Qatari carrier. It is the second time that Qatar Airways Group has taken leased B737-8s, although the first three delivered in 2019 (with a further two ready for delivery when the type was grounded in March of that year) were operated by its then 49%-owned subsidiary, Air Italy. Following the collapse of Air Italy, the Qatari group returned all B737 MAX and said it would not be operating the type. However, last year, the airline ordered twenty-five B737-10s with a further twenty-five options.
