Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) hopes that the deliveries of the B777-9s will begin on schedule in 2020 and that it will be the first airline to fly the new type, Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker told Air Transport World.

The Qatari carrier has fifty B777-9s on order with Boeing, as well as a further ten B777-8s. It is the world's second largest customer for the new widebody, following Gulf rival Emirates (EK, Dubai International) with orders for thirty-five -8s and 115 -9s.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Qatar Airways operates seventy-three current generation B777s, including nine B777-200(LR)s, forty-eight B777-300(ER)s, and sixteen B777-Fs.

Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr recently said that Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) will take the first out of its twenty -9s in 2020 and base the aircraft out of Frankfurt International.

The new generation of the B777 Family was unveiled in a closed ceremony for Boeing employees on March 13, 2019. A public event was called off in the wake of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines's B737-8 and the subsequent global grounding of the type.