Qatar Airways not interested in new acquisitions - Al Baker

Capital A plans widebody Airbus order for AirAsia

The CEO of Capital A, the entity behind AirAsia (AK, Kuala Lumpur International) and other AirAsia brands, has indicated the company is working on a fresh aircraft order, most likely with Airbus, and that the additional aircraft will facilitate a major network expansion.

Speaking to Channel News Asia (CNA) at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore on September 14, CEO Tony Fernandes said he wanted to add more capacity across his airlines and that a new aircraft purchase would assist. "We are in discussions with manufacturers for a widebody order," he said, noting that the dealings were primarily with Airbus but added that Boeing had also made offers.

Fernandes declined to answer a question about the size of the order, saying it would be subject to board approval. However, he said he envisaged building a multi-hub route strategy within the ten-nation ASEAN bloc "as big as Emirates in Dubai and Qatar Airways in Doha [...] In due course, we will announce what kind of order size we are looking at."...

Appeals court finds Qantas illegally sacked 1,683 workers

Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) has lost a last-ditch appeal to Australia's High Court that sought to overturn a 2021 lower court ruling that the airline had illegally outsourced its ground-handling units at ten airports in 2020, a decision that saw 1,683 people lose their jobs at the airline. The High Court handed down its highly anticipated decision on September 13, 2023.

The outsourcing decision resulted in ground-handling services, then being performed by the heavily unionised employees of Qantas and Qantas Ground Services Pty Ltd, being outsourced to third-party firms, namely Swissport, dnata, and Menzies. In response to the move, the Transport Worker's Union took Qantas to court on behalf of its affected members.

While Australia's top court agreed with a previous Federal Court ruling that Qantas had sound commercial reasons for the outsourcing decision, it also found that there were additional reasons that were "substantial and operative," including preventing the affected employees from exercising workplace rights to organise and engage in protected industrial action and to participate in bargaining.

The union welcomed...

Qatar Airways leases Air Mauritius's Heathrow slots

Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) has leased three slot pairs at London Heathrow from Air Mauritius (MK, Mauritius) as the latter is moving its London operations to London Gatwick.

According to Airport Coordination Ltd records, Qatar Airways secured the Winter 2023/24 season slots for flights from Doha Hamad International on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. It plans to use the B777-300(ER) on these services.

The Mauritian carrier chose to move its operations to Gatwick to provide daily, consistent connectivity to London, replacing the current 5x weekly service to Heathrow. On top of its three owned slots at Heathrow, now due to be used by Qatar Airways, Air Mauritius leases the other two slot pairs it currently uses from Royal Brunei Airlines (BI, Bandar Seri Begawan).

The ch-aviation schedules module shows that Qatar Airways currently operates daily to Gatwick and up to 7x daily to Heathrow.

Emirates extends B777-200LR leases through 2030s