Summary Romania's TAROM has sold its arrival and departure slot at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Qatar Airways. With the new slot, the Qatari carrier plans to operate daily flights using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. As a result, the airline should operate around eight daily flights starting October 27.
TAROM , the flag carrier of Romania, has transferred its London Heathrow Airport (LHR) slots to Qatar Airways for an undisclosed sum. Daily LHR slots As disclosed by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) on August 14, TAROM has transferred its upcoming winter season slots at LHR to Qatar Airways . The transaction was a sale of the daily slots, the document showed, with the Romanian carrier transferring its slots permanently.
TAROM has been operating its daily flight from LHR to Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP) with an Airbus A318. Furthermore, the Romanian airline’s flight had a scheduled arrival time of 14:05 local (UTC +1) and a scheduled departure time of 14:50. Only 11 of Air France and TAROM's 13 A318s are active.
Changing the arrival and departure time However, Qatar Airways requested to change the arrival and departure times of the landing and takeoff of its flight from LHR to Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) . Following the transfer, which will become valid on October 27 and will cover the whole International Air Transport Association (IATA) winter season until March 29, 2025, the Qatari airline’s aircraft will arrive at LHR at 23:00 and depart at 23:05. Qatar Airways plans to use flight codes QR109 and QR110 for its arriving and departing flights from/to LHR, respectively.
The carrier has also filed that it would operate the flights using the Boeing 777-300ER fitted with 354 seats. Ch-aviation data showed that Qatar Airways has 28 777-300ER aircraft with 42 business class seats and 312 economy class seats. The airline’s other 777-300ERs are configured as follows: six first, 53 business, and 235 economy class seats 24 business and 388 economy class seats 37 business and 302 economy class seats 42 business and 316 economy class seats With several configurations, Qatar Airways' 777s have a lot to offer.
Eight daily flights to LHR While the latest data would not reflect Qatar Airways’ acquisition of the slots, the aviation analytics company Cirium indicated that the carrier has planned 49 weekly flights between LHR and DOH in November. With the addition of another seven weekly itineraries, the airline should typically operate eight daily flights on the route. The current schedule showed that Qatar Airways has scheduled seven flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, while on Wednesdays and Saturdays, it has planned six and eight flights, respectively.
In addition to Qatar Airways, British Airways has planned 14 weekly flights from LHR to DOH, bringing the total route’s capacity to 63 weekly departures and 21,669 weekly seats in November. Furthermore, the Qatari carrier has ten weekly flights from London Gatwick Airport (LGW) and DOH. As a result, with the addition of another daily flight between London, the UK, and Doha, Qatar, there will be a total of 80 weekly departures and 26,687 weekly seats on the route starting October 27.
While the transaction’s sum was not disclosed, the slots should have come at a hefty price. In 2016, Oman Air reportedly paid Air France $75 million for a pair of slots at LHR, which has been capacity-constrained for decades now . The airport’s plan to add another runway has been in the works, yet with local communities’ opposition, LHR has struggled to move beyond the planning stage to build its third runway.
According to the executive, Heathrow's status as an international hub could be challenged by the lack of room to expand services..
