British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) is looking to wet-lease nine A320 and/or A321 aircraft from Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) to offset the impact of an impending crew strike set for July 1 to 16.

An application filed with the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) indicates the contracts may be extended beyond July 16 for a maximum of two months.

If given the green light, the move would provide temporary relief to the Qatari carrier which has been saddled with a near 20% surplus in capacity following its banning from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Egypt earlier this month.

Doha's case against the closure of the four countries' markets and airspaces to Qatari-registered aircraft will be heard by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on June 30. According to Reuters, Qatar's Minister of Transport Jassim Saif Al Sulaiti will seek to open up more international air corridors over Gulf waters currently managed by the United Arab Emirates.

Qatar Airways has been forced to transit Iranian and then either Omani or Turkish airspace for its intercontinental flights since the embargo began on June 5.

The four states collectively accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism and allying itself with Iran, charges it has denied. Earlier this past week, the four presented a list of thirteen demands to be implemented for the embargo to be lifted. They included the closure of Al Jazeera television, the curbing of ties with Iran, the closure of a Turkish military base, and the payment of reparations. Qatar has since rejected the list as “unreasonable”.