Change of heart: Qatar Airways to bring back Airbus A380s?

Qatar Airways chief executive said that the airline would be returning its Airbus A380s back to the skies. The carrier’s Super Jumbos will fly as soon as November 2021. 

“I think by early November we'll be starting to fly the A380s again. At the moment we are looking at flying five, but we may have to fly all ten,” Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker told Executive Traveller on September 29, 2021. 

The move to lift Airbus A380s once again comes as the airline has a 4,000-seat gap due to “issues with its certain Airbus A350s”, which have been grounded by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) in August 2021.

The Qatari aviation regulator grounded 13 Airbus A350s because the surface below the paint on certain A350s was degrading at an accelerated rate.

Read more:  Finnair uses A350s to raise cash in sale and leaseback deal

"Qatar Airways expects Airbus to have established the root cause and permanently corrected the underlying condition to the satisfaction of Qatar Airways and our regulator before we take delivery of any further A350 aircraft,” Al Baker was quoted in a statement dated August 5, 2021.