Qatar Airways is reportedly considering acquiring former American Airlines Airbus A330 aircraft, which it inherited when it merged with US Airways, presumably due to aircraft delivery delays from both aircraft manufacturers, including Boeing’s latest postponement of the 777X.

Ex-US Airways A330s

In a post on Bluesky, which has welcomed users leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, in the millions, JonNYC, an aviation watchdog, said that Qatar Airways has been exploring the possibility of acquiring stored American Airlines A330-200 aircraft. Simple Flying has approached Qatar Airways for comment.

According to ch-aviation data, American Airlines still has 15 A330-200s in its fleet. The airline stored all of them at Roswell Air Center (ROW) between February 2020 and April 2020, just as the pandemic had begun.

Photo: jremes84 | Shutterstock

All 15 were previously operated by US Airways, with American Airlines taking over the aircraft when the two airlines finalized their merger in December 2013, creating the holding company American Airlines Group.

Ch-aviation fleet records showed that American Airlines has at least 205 ex- US Airways aircraft, including A319ceo, A320ceo, A321ceo, and the 15 A330-200s.

During the pandemic, American Airlines slowly changed its mind about the fate of its A330-200 fleet. While the nine A330-300s, which were also inherited during the merger with US Airways, were retired almost immediately, the jury was still out regarding the smaller A330s.

On the company’s Q2 2020 earnings call on July 23, 2020, Derek Kerr, the former chief financial officer (CFO) of American Airlines, detailed that the airline had placed the A330-200 and several older Boeing 737s “into temporary storage programs.”

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Retiring A330-200s

As the pandemic continued, American Airlines, much like any airline in the world, had decisions to make in order to conserve cash to weather the storm that eventually ended in 2022.

When it announced its Q3 2020 results on October 15, 2020, the airline said that it had continued aggressively reducing costs and preserving cash, with an estimated $17 billion removed from its operating and capital budgets for 2020.

Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis | Shutterstock

This included the removal of over 150 aircraft from its fleet, with the retirements affecting Boeing 757, 767, Embraer E190, Airbus A330-300, Bombardier CRJ200, and the A330-200 becoming the latest addition to the list on October 22, 2020.

During that quarter’s earnings call, Kerr, who left his CFO role in 2022 and retired from the airline in 2023, said that the carrier’s long-held strategy has been to drive efficiencies by simplifying its fleet.

“With the permanent retirement of our A330-200 fleet announced this morning, we now have only 4 aircraft types in our mainline fleet: 737, the A320 family, 787, and 777.”

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Qatar Airways acquiring second-hand aircraft

If Qatar Airways does end up acquiring all or some of the ex-American Airlines A330-200s, it would not be the first time that the Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH)-based airline has tapped the second-hand market to bolster its fleet.

Ch-aviation records showed that the airline had acquired at least nine Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from Cathay Pacific (six 777-300ERs) and Virgin Australia (three), all of which were introduced between December 2021 and June 2023.

Furthermore, it has nine 737 MAX 8 aircraft, some of which were not taken up by S7 Airlines, the Russia-based carrier that, together with the country’s aerospace industry, has been affected by international sanctions due to the country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The airline introduced the nine Boeing single-aisle jets into its fleet in 2023. The carrier operated its first-ever commercial 737 MAX 8 flight on May 10, 2023, with a 737 MAX 8, registered as A7-BSC, flying from Doha-Hamad International to Kuwait International Airport (KWI).

Photo: Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways has also been wet leasing Oman Air A330-200 and A330-300 aircraft, according to ch-aviation. The airline has utilized four and three aircraft of the type, respectively, in addition to its own four A330-200 (two stored) and eight A330-300 (one stored) aircraft, ch-aviation records showed.

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