During the 2022 Farnborough Airshow, the CEO of the Qatar Airways Group Akbar Al Baker stated that Qatar Airways will be the first airline to receive the new 777X. Reportedly, it has 24 of the shorter 777-8 and 50 of the larger 777-9 on order. This makes the airline with the second most 777Xs on order, with Emirates being the first.
"We will be the first [777X] recipient. We are the first launch customer with Emirates in the good old days... Boeing has already announced that [the first delivery] is 2025. It was supposed to be 2022, originally 2021. I actually expect that they could even improve on 2025." - Al Baker, Qatar Airways Group CEO
Qatar Airways had previously clashed with Boeing's rival Airbus regarding paint deterioration issues on the A350. The airline had showed concerns that the fuselage degeneration issues pose a threat to passengers. Airbus had dismissed the claims stating that it was not a serious issue. Soon after, multiple other airlines, including Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa announced that they had found similar issues on their A350s. The dispute had caused some Qatar Airways' orders of the A320 series to be replaced with the 737 Max series. A pending court case is set for mid-2023 to resolve the dispute between Qatar Airways and Airbus.
