Qatar Airways is wet leasing three Oman Air A330-300s, joining three (and soon four) B777-300ERs added from Cathay Pacific. It comes as 21 A350s remain grounded due to surface degradation issues. The A330s are used to Colombo, Dhaka, and Tunis, while the B777s are for now primarily deployed on freight runs.

It's leasing half of Oman Air's A330-300s

Qatar Airways has wet-leased three of Oman Air's six A330-300s, with aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance provided. The pair have developed a closer relationship, probably as Oman Air wishes to join oneworld.

Radarbox.com shows that the aircraft began flying for Qatar Airways on January 10th. The three aircraft are A4O-DH (delivered to Oman Air in November 2014), A4O-DI (December 2014), and A4O-DJ (February 2015). Funnily enough, they're the youngest of Oman Air's six-strong type.

A4O-DJ
When writing, only one of the aircraft (A4O-DJ) is en route. It is operating QR639 from Dhaka to Doha, with a typical duration of about six hours. Image: Radarbox.com.

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The A330s are used on three routes

According to ch-aviation.com, all three aircraft are owned by Oman Air. They have 289 seats, with 24 fully flat beds in business and 265 seats in economy. They're Oman Air's highest-density A330s. They're well suited to the routes on which Qatar Airways has deployed them, as follows, with the schedule from/to Doha provided (all times are local).

  • Colombo: QR662/QR663 (19:25-02:30+1; 04:00-06:30)
  • Dhaka: QR638/QR639 (09:30-17:20/18:50-21:45) and QR640/641 (01:25-09:15/10:45-13:40)
  • Tunis: QR1399/QR1400 (09:15-13:35/16:05-23:25)

Through to the end of February, Colombo will be almost entirely by the A330-300, A330-200, and A321. Dhaka will see the A330-300 and -200, while Tunis will be exclusively by the larger A330 variant. Things are due to change in the summer. The A350-1000, A320, B787-8, and B777-300ER are down for Colombo, while Dhaka goes all B777-300ER and Tunis all A350-900.

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Qatar Airways now flies over 1,400 passengers to Sri Lanka each day. Photo: RHL Images via Flickr.

It follows the addition of Cathay B777s

The A330s arrived shortly after Cathay Pacific's B777-300ERs, which entered Qatar Airways' employ late last year. As it's unclear if they've been acquired or simply dry-leased (i.e., just the aircraft), it's not known how long they'll be used.

The aircraft are A7-BOA (previously B-KPL), A7-BOB (B-KPM), and A7-BOD (B-KPN). According to ch-aviation.com, they're all owned by BOC Aviation, as you might guess from their registrations. 'KPL was delivered to Cathay in October 2009, while 'KPM and 'KPN arrived two months later. A fourth aircraft (ex-B-KPP, to become A7-BOC) arrived in Doha on January 26th.

B-KPM_Boeing_777_Cathay_Pacific_(9485090205)
This specific aircraft (B-KPM) is now flying for Qatar Airways as A7-BOB. It wears an all-white livery. Photo: Mark Harkin via Flickr.

Four-class B777-300ERs

The ex-Cathay B777s have a four-class configuration, with six first class seats, 53 business, 34 premium economy (which would be sold by Qatar Airways as economy), and 203 in economy. Because of first and premium economy, they have only 296 seats, so 16% to 28% fewer than Qatar's other B777-300ERs.

The aircraft have primarily been carrying freight recently. When writing, A7-BOA is about to leave Paris CDG as Qatar 22 Yankie, while A7-BOB is en route to Europe as Qatar 8864. However, things change from March onwards (or are due to, anyway), with a three-daily first-equipped service to Malé and once-daily to Hong Kong. As Qatar's other B777s don't have first, they must be with ex-Cathay aircraft.

What do you make of the current situation? Let us know in the comments.