Qatar takes first long-haul jets in months with delivery of A350-1000s

Airbus has delivered three A350-1000s to Qatar Airways, its first handover of long-haul aircraft to the Middle Eastern carrier for eight months. Qatar received its last long-haul jet from the airframer, an A350-1000, on 27 February – giving it 15 of the larger A350 variant. It had already completed deliveries of its 34 directly-ordered A350-900s in September last year. All three of the latest A350-1000s – registered A7-ANO, -ANQ and -ANR – departed in sequence from Toulouse for Doha on 22 October. “Qatar Airways is one of the few global airlines to have never stopped flying throughout this crisis,” says CE Akbar Al Baker. He adds that it is “one of the only airlines to continue taking delivery of new aircraft”, although it has kept its A380 fleet grounded. Qatar has 42 A350-1000s on order. The latest three deliveries mean it will have 18 in the fleet – taking its overall A350 complement, of both variants, to 52 jets.<br/>