Qatar Airways has fully retired its remaining Airbus A330 passenger fleet and is temporarily sending some A330-qualified pilots to RwandAir in short-term voluntary secondments. The move follows the grounding of aircraft that were leased from Oman Air and never entered commercial service with Qatar Airways, while one of the jets has already been transferred to the Rwandan carrier.
The arrangement covers just over a dozen staff, including pilots who had not flown commercially since the start of the Iran-related disruption to Gulf aviation. Qatar Airways is using the secondments to keep those crews current while supporting RwandAir’s operations. The carrier had leased four A330 widebody jets from Oman Air last year and had planned to use them through 2026, but their fate changed as higher operating costs and prolonged regional disruption made older aircraft less attractive.
The retirement removes Qatar Airways’ last A330 passenger aircraft from service and underlines how the regional fallout from the Iran conflict continues to reshape fleet planning across Gulf airlines. Two of the leased A330s parked in Doha were expected to be returned to lessor Jetran in October, although the wider disposition of the remaining aircraft was not fully detailed in the available coverage.