Qatar Airways Buys TAROM’s London Heathrow Slots

‍DALLAS — Qatar Airways (QR) will add frequencies to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) after obtaining slots from TAROM (RO).

According to BusinessTraveller.com, slot coordinator Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) has confirmed that QR has purchased slots previously owned by Romanian flag carrier TAROM (RO). As disclosed by ACL on August 14, RO will permanently transfer its LHR slots to QR.

The value of this transaction has not been disclosed, but it is believed that these slots would have been sold at a high price. RO operates daily flights from LHR to Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP) with a baby bus, the Airbus A318.

New QR Service to LHR 

Qatar Airways will use these slots to operate a daily Boeing 777 service to LHR. However, QR has requested that the arrival and departure times be changed. It intends to operate flight QR109, arriving at LHR at 1405 and departing the London airport as QR110 at 1450. The carrier will operate these flights using a Boeing 777-300ER with 354 seats.

The carrier has yet to announce this to the media officially. However, QR’s website shows that it will offer eight daily nonstop flights between the Doha (DOH) hub and LHR in November. This increases from the current seven frequencies QR operates on the route. QR also operates flights between DOH and London Gatwick Airport (LGW).

TAROM is the oldest currently operating airline of Romania, based in Otopeni near Bucharest. Its headquarters and its main hub are at Henri Coandă International Airport (OTP). The featured image shows a QR Airbus A380 A7-APG at LHR.