Grey "Armada" on the way to the UK?
 

Rumour has it that several mostly grey A320s which are currently "surplus to requirements" will be coming from their Middle East base to operate flights out of Heathrow during the first couple of weeks of July while some cabin crew at a local airline are striking.

More than just a rumour:

British Airways Plc applied on 21 June 2017 to wet lease nine Qatar registered Airbus A320 or A321 aircraft

As I type and with reference to one of the usual Flight tracker sites , one has just landed and another seven appear to be airborne en route. BA were not bluffing.

Hmm,
Wonder if Qatar airways know anything about computers.

More seriously will these be wet leases with QR flight deck crews who know little of the challenges of LHR at peak times

From what I witnessed, they will have plenty of practice with Doha peak times :)

Well they are certainly wet leases, that much is clear from the CAA link I posted earlier.

It's unlikely that the crews will be familiar with Heathrow unless any of them have moved across from the widebody Airbuses and Boeings that QTR normally operate into LHR.

That said, flying into and out of LHR is largely a case of having implicit trust in ATC. If you can't follow vectors accurately or control your speed precisely then you really shouldn't be flying at all.

That was my point. DOH can get pretty hectic at certain times. Furthermore the A320 fleet flies to some pretty busy airports including quite a few in Europe. I see no reason why they should struggle with LHR.

I wonder why they have done this, I mean leased these aircraft ? Surely it would have been simpler to resolve the strike issue? Maybe I am just a simpleton.....!

Perhaps, or perhaps no compromise is possible. I am not privy to the details. But then what about the next strike issue...?

It's all strategy and posturing. This wet-lease sets a precedent; the airline will spend money in order to bypass the strike. That dilutes the potential effect of future strikes and hence reduces union potency.

Not saying I agree with it or not but from a corporate position it's sensible.

I was being a bit facetious about them being used to LHR but have a vested interested as I am on BA to Marseilles next weekend. I am now wondering if there is anywhere on line one can find out whether the flight will be operated by BA or QR aircraft-

While one can see why management want to try and rid themselves of the strikes this must cost a lot of money and one wonders if BA Management have lost their sense of values recently by picking cheap options rather than good options and trying to break strikes rather than resolve issues. The mixed fleet contract was a disaster waiting to happen as they seem to have settled the years of problems with the original CC members and built a brand new one in being too cheap to pay proper wages with mixed fleet.

As an entity they seem to be heading downwards since abit like premier league football it all looks ok now until you realise the customer base are all over 45 For short haul at least younger people go for the LCCs and .
if SH goes and with our inexorable economic decline can they maintain a profitable LH business if all the transfer /transit pax choose AMS FRA and CDG

My guess is whilst the problems with Qatar seem to be getting worse and there's hardly any work for the 320's then WW and AC would have got a good deal with the leases. I can't see BA risking cancelling flights especially after recent events.

Qatar regularly fly to LHR with A320s. I think it's an all premium seating layout.

No, they don't.

Yes, they used their two A319s on the QR015/016 for about 18 months before swapping that service to the B788 in November 2015 and subsequently the A359.

But there hasn't been a QTR narrow-body in LHR since then and yesterday was the first visit ever by any of their A320s.

The Qatar Amiri Flight A340 A7-HHK arrived at LHR a few minutes ago.

In addition to the Qatari aircraft, HiFly A340s CS-TQZ and 9H-JAI are operating a couple of BA flights tomorrow (Sunday).

Apparently the A320's have been very busy the last 2 days all over Europe much to the delight of spotters hither and tither.

I'd agree with the use of wet-leases as a political instrument, rather than a cost saving consideration for BA. Their image has suffered greatly in the last months and the very last thing that they need is more unhappy customers trumpeting their displeasure on social media.

How about just sitting down, negotiating and settling the dispute? Seems straight forward to me but what do I know? As an outsider, it would appear quite a few of their problems are self inflicted.

When you have the 'Arthur Scargills' of the world fighting for a cause you know there will never be an outcome. The word 'Negotiation' doesn't seem to be on the table so to speak.

What happens next time, when Qatar has sorted its neighbour dispute out and doesn't have the spare capacity?
Who will we see papering over the cracks then ?
Just curious?
Be lucky
David

I am sure an agreement could be reached if there was a desire to achieve one.... What has Arthur Scargill to do with the airline business......??