The Dutch commercial pilots' union Vereniging Nederlandse Verkeersvliegers (VNV) has urged Air France-KLM to stop wet-leasing freighter aircraft from Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) over concerns about unfair competition, The Loadstar has reported.

"The VNV has requested [Air France-KLM Executive Vice-President (Cargo)] Marcel de Nooijer to terminate the full-freighter capacity contract lease agreement with Qatar Airways," the union said.

The Franco-Dutch holding has wet-leased two B777-Fs from Qatar Airways' cargo division to cover for the capacity shortage during the planned maintenance of own aircraft in summer. Each of Boeing freighters will operate for Air France consecutively for periods of up to eight weeks.

The first of the two aircraft, A7-BFA (msn 36098), started operating transatlantic cargo flights on behalf of Air France on July 22, 2018, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.

The VNV admitted that wet-leasing is an option during the maintenance period, but complained that Air France-KLM should not be sourcing the aircraft from Qatar Airways. The Qatari carrier has been accused of receiving illegal state subsidies distorting competition in the global aviation market. Qatar Airways denies such charges.

"Qatar Airways absolutely does not comply with [the global level playing field rules], because in recent years it has received billions of euros in improper state support. We do not want to accept the fight against unfair competition on the one hand and hire the textbook of unfair competition on the other," the VNV said.

The union also criticised Air France-KLM for first significantly reducing own freighter capacity, particularly at its full-cargo unit Martinair (Netherlands) (MP, Amsterdam Schiphol), and subsequently resorting to wet-leasing.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Martinair currently operates four B747-400(F)s, three of which are branded as KLM Cargo. For its part, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines does not operate any full-freighters but it deploys eight B747-400(M) combi aircraft in revenue service. Air France operates two own B777-Fs, of which F-GUOB (msn 32965) has been grounded at Singapore Changi since July 15, 2018.

Qatar Airways' cargo fleet encompasses eight A330-200Fs, two B747-8(F)s, and thirteen B777-Fs.