Qatar Airways’ cargo division has officially retired all of its A330-200 freighters in favour of the Boeing 777 freighters it took delivery of in January.
The retirement was long planned by the Doha-based airline, and was in fact delayed by two months due to the delayed delivery of its 777Fs.
According to Qatar Airways chief officer for cargo, Guillaume Halleux, the airline originally had five A330 freighters, of which one was sold off to the Hungarian government in August 2020.
The other four were planned to be phased out throughout 2020, with the final due to depart the Qatar fleet in November 2020.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the delay of said retirement, as the airline waited to receive its three new Boeing 777 freighters on 31 January, 2021.
The airline has two additional 777Fs still to be delivered, which are expected to join the fleet in March and April 2021, respectively.
Qatar Airways welcomed its first Airbus A330-200 freighter into its fleet in March 2013.
“We made no secret from the beginning that the order of five B777 freighters placed at the Paris Airshow in 2019 was to replace and phase out A330 freighters,” Halleux said.
“This is part of streamlining our freighter fleet and going in for a homogenous fleet for very obvious reasons of optimisation and synergy.”
As such, Qatar’s freighter fleet is now made up entirely of Boeing aircraft.
The fleet includes two Boeing 747-8Fs, and 24 Boeing 777Fs, not including the two more to be added by April 2021.
