Stranded Qatar Airways B777-300ERs return to Doha

By Andrew Curran.

Four Qatar Airways B777s temporarily parked at Brisbane Airport (BNE) have returned to Doha, with three resuming scheduled services, albeit flying fewer hours than usual.

Last month, Aero South Pacific reported on the four B777-300ERs ferrying to Brisbane from other Australian airports where they had sat stranded since the outbreak of hostilities in the Gulf.

A7-BEM (msn 64088) and A7-BAQ (msn 38247) ferried to Brisbane from Perth (PER) on March 21, as did A7-BEL (msn 64063) from Melbourne (MEL) and A7-BEG (msn 60333) from Sydney (SYD).

ADS-B flight tracking data shows the four aircraft spent around one week at Brisbane before returning to Doha.

A7-BEM flew from Brisbane to Doha on March 28, resuming revenue services two days later with a Doha (DOH) – London (LHR) – Doha rotation. It has operated on most days since then.

A7-BEL ferried from Brisbane to Doha on March 30 and also restarted revenue flights two days after its return, operating a Doha - London - Doha round-tip on April 1.

A7-BAQ flew from Brisbane to Doha on March 31 and returned to service two days later, flying a Doha – Riyadh (RUH) – Doha round-trip on April 2.

A7-BEG is the exception to the rule. It ferried from Brisbane to Doha on March 30 but has not resumed revenue flights for Qatar Airways.

Qatar Airways steadily rebuilds schedules

Qatar Airways temporarily ceased operating after the outbreak of the war six weeks ago but is steadily rebuilding operations, working with a very dynamic security environment.

The Qatari carrier was scheduled to operate 108 departures from Doha yesterday, April 8. It was the first time since the war started that the carrier had 100 plus daily departures from its hub.

Qatar Airways had anticipated further growth through to June. That may accelerate now a two-week truce had been declared in the region.

The airline typically operates over 540 departures each day from Doha.

Open-source data shows that 107 of the Qatar Airways’ 270 strong fleet is temporarily parked at various airports around the world.

The parked planes include twenty-four A320-200s, six A321-200Ns, five A330-200s, ten A330-300s, nine A359-900s, six A350-1000s, eight A380-800s, seven B777-200s, seventeen B777-300ERs, thirteen B787-8s, and four B787-9s.

Photo: Qatar Airways.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com