Filings have shown that Qatar Airways has acquired slots at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) from Air France to add an additional daily flight.
In a slot swap form from Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), which oversees slots at LHR and several other airports globally, Air France will lease daily arrival and departure slots to Qatar Airways for at least the summer 2026 season.
The form indicates that Qatar Airways plans to operate daily Boeing 777-300ER flights with the newly acquired slots, with an arrival time of 07:00 UTC and a departure time of 08:00 UTC, which could be a placeholder.
However, ACL’s start-of-season report for LHR showed that the Qatari carrier’s total movements during the summer 2026 season, compared to the end of the summer 2025 season, will be down 4%, resulting in a 1% decrease in deployed seats.
In total, LHR’s movements are up 3% compared to the end of the summer 2025 season, with total departing seats climbing to 66.2 million, an increase of 6.4%, as airlines continue upgauging their services at the airport.
Still, while during some summer season months, like in April, for example, Qatar Airways will operate fewer weekly frequencies, its per-week departures from Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) to LHR will grow compared to last year between July and October this summer season, per Cirium’s Diio Mi data.
Now, though, Qatar Airways has largely suspended its operations due to the conflict in Iran, and per the latest Cirium data, has cancelled around 90% of its flights since February 28.
In a guidance paper related to airports’ slots, including LHR, ACL said that it will “grant alleviation to operators that are required to cancel services as a direct result of airport and/or airspace closure and restrictions.”
“Where serious disturbance exists because of the situation, ACL will grant alleviation for the period of the disturbance plus six weeks.”
The slot coordinator listed DOH as an airport that has experienced “serious disturbance/exceptional circumstances.”
Per the current schedules, in July, for example, when Qatar Airways will have 66 weekly departures from the airport, the Qatari carrier will be the 11th busiest airline at the airport in terms of weekly flights, and the sixth in terms of weekly departing seats.
Rytis Beresnevicius
