Qatar Airways has 300 plus aircraft worth more than $90bn on order

Aircraft on order illustrates the national carrier’s appetite for growth and expansion in the face of illegal blockade by the country’s neighbours and other challenging geopolitical conditions

Qatar Airways has more than 300 aircraft worth more than $90bn on order, illustrating the national carrier’s appetite for growth and expansion in the face of illegal blockade by the country’s neighbours and other challenging geopolitical conditions.

Aircraft on order include planes from both the leading manufacturers- Boeing and Airbus.

On order include 100 Boeing 777Sx (including options), 60 Boeing 737 Max 8 (including 20 firm), 30 Boeing 787s, seven Boeing 777-300ER and three Boeing 777F, 80 Airbus A320 neo (including options), 54 Airbus A350s, eight Airbus A330 freighter (options) and one Airbus A380.

During the year Qatar Airways reached another important milestone when it welcomed its 200th aircraft into the fleet.

As of March 31, 2018 Qatar Airways fleet stood at 213 aircraft with an average age of under five years, making the airline “one of the youngest fleets flying the skies” today.

In the months that followed the blockade, Qatar Airways took many steps to ensure that the impact of the blockade on the airline was “contained and controlled”.

In its Annual Report 2018, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said, “As much as possible we continued with a ‘business as usual attitude’ while we made adjustments to the deployment of our aircraft that had previously been flying to the now 18 blockaded destinations.

“New destinations to Sohar, Prague and Kyiv were quickly announced and launched within 10 weeks while a number of aircraft and crew were leased to British Airways to overcome the strike impacting their operations during the peak summer season.”

Al-Baker noted, “Our expansion continued apace throughout the year with additional services being added to our global network to popular destinations such as St. Petersburg, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Penang and Canberra. In total our route map increased by 14 new destinations during the financial year, connecting our passengers to even more exciting business and leisure hot spots around the world.

“This turbulent year though has inevitably had an impact on our financial results, which reflect the negative effect the illegal blockade has had on our airline. However, I am pleased to say that thanks to our robust business planning, swift actions in the face of the crisis, our passenger-focused solutions and dedicated staff, the impact has been minimised – and has certainly not been as negative as our neighbouring countries may have hoped for.”