Qatar Airways has retired its last Airbus A330 passenger planes and is temporarily sending some of its pilots to RwandAir as the war involving Iran disrupts air travel in the Middle East and pushes up jet fuel prices.
A group of Qatar Airways pilots trained to fly the A330 have been offered short-term work with RwandAir, according to Reuters, which cited two people familiar with the matter and aviation data reviewed by the news agency.
The Qatar Airways pilots are among just over a dozen staff being sent to RwandAir. Some of the pilots had not been flying commercially since the war began.
A Qatar Airways spokesperson said the arrangement was a normal way of giving pilots flying opportunities while also supporting the operations of both airlines.
“A group of Qatar Airways A330 pilots are being offered a voluntary short-term secondment opportunity with RwandAir,” the spokesperson said.
The airline did not say how long the pilots would remain with RwandAir.
The move follows Qatar Airways’ decision to retire its A330 passenger fleet. The airline had leased four A330 aircraft from Oman Air in 2025 and planned to use them through 2026, but the planes never entered commercial service, according to the people cited by Reuters.
One of the aircraft was acquired by RwandAir earlier this year.
RwandAir already operates Airbus A330 aircraft and lists the A330 among the aircraft used by its pilots. The airline also has a codeshare partnership with Qatar Airways.
The decision to retire the older planes comes as airlines face higher costs because of the war involving Iran. Reuters reported that jet fuel prices have doubled since the conflict began.
Older A330 aircraft use more fuel than newer planes, making them more expensive to operate when fuel prices are high. Analysts cited by Reuters said parking such aircraft can be cheaper than flying them under current conditions.
The wider use of the A330-200 and A330-300 has also fallen. Cirium Ascend data reviewed by Reuters showed flights using the two models were down about 12% from September 2025.
Qatar Airways has also reduced its operations. In September, its passenger-carrying capacity was about 10% lower than a year earlier, while it was operating about 12% fewer flights and using 4% fewer aircraft, according to Cirium data cited by Reuters.
The airline is nevertheless continuing to replace older aircraft with newer ones. Qatar Airways said it plans to remove six aircraft from its fleet between September 2026 and the end of 2027 while receiving 19 new aircraft during the same period.
The airline expects to receive 138 new aircraft over the next five years and has 410 aircraft on order from Airbus and Boeing as it prepares to expand its operations into the 2030s, according to Reuters.
