Qatar Airways first to receive 777X in 2020 - al Baker ch-aviation PRO exclusive

Speaking in an interview with the German DPA news agency on December 1, Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int'l) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Akbar Al Baker has strengthened his views on a potential partnership with Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l).

"If there is an opportunity to invest in Lufthansa, we would like to do that," he said adding that codeshare flights or a marketing cooperation could be other areas where Qatar Airways and Lufthansa could work together.

Al Baker has a history of being very open towards his Star Alliance competitor. In an interview with aeroTELEGRAPH last year he commented: "We don’t want to harm Lufthansa." The outspoken CEO added that while he wanted to grow his airline, it was not to be at the expense of other carriers. "If there is competition, there is also room for cooperation," he said when referring to the German airline.

Being in different global alliances could be an important consideration in any deal, but Al Baker seemed confident it would not be a barrier. "I have...

AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines (J2, Baku) will soon take delivery of its first B777-200(LR) which will be used as a VIP government transport, photos of the jet seen by ch-aviation have revealed.

4K-AZ01, which has already been painted in AZAL's standard livery, will be the first B777-200(LR) delivered in around five years. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Boeing has produced just 59 units of the type, the last of which, P4-SKN (msn 60116), was delivered to the Republica de Guinea Ecuatorial (Malabo) in December 2014.

The largest operators of the B777-200(LR) are Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) and Emirates (EK, Dubai Int'l) with ten units each. Other operators include Qatar Airways, Air Canada, Ethiopian Airlines, Air India, Turkmenistan Airlines, PIA - Pakistan International Airlines, Aviation Link, Comlux Aruba, Iraqi Airways, and White.

For its part, AZAL already operates a sizeable VIP fleet including one A319-100ACJ, one A320-200ACJ, one A340-600ACJ, and...

Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int'l) is suspending the 21-nautical mile (38-kilometre) flight it started operating between Maastricht, in The Netherlands, and Liège, in Belgium, less than a month ago, according to a report on the nltimes website.

With a flight time of around nine minutes, the carrier had been trying to satisfy the needs of one specific client that required its goods to be offloaded at the Dutch airport.

Under its original plan, flight QR8173 left the airline's Doha Hamad Int'l base and flew direct to Maastricht. After unloading its freight, the B777-F then hopped to Liege, before continuing onto México City Int'l and finally to Los Angeles Int'l. However, according to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, the flight between Maastricht and Liege was operated on November 10, but the service planned a week later on November 17 flew direct from Doha to Liège, with no stop in The Netherlands.

Dutch Infrastructure Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen said she wants the government to ban such short cargo flights. Dutch MPs are...