Qatar Airways: a lesser reduction than expected for its winter program

The latest schedule filing, published by AeroRoutes on October 15 and based on comparisons between March 29 and October 11, shows the Doha-based carrier planning 38,825 one-way passenger departures, offering approximately 11.05 million seats.

That compares with 41,178 departures and 11.21 million seats in the original March schedule. The latest changes represent a reduction of 5.7% in flights and 1.4% in available capacity. In August, Qatar Airways was still planning a 7.1% reduction in flights and a 2.6% capacity decline.

Qatar Airways is restoring capacity across parts of its network, mostly in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Asia and Europe with more flights
From October 25, flights between Doha and Kuala Lumpur will increase from 14 to 18 weekly, while Bangkok services will rise from 35 to 38 weekly before reaching 42 from November 15.

The airline is also adjusting aircraft assignments in Australia services. Adelaide will lose its daily frequency on Doha-Adelaide-Auckland while its nonstop service will offer five weekly frequencies instead of seven. Meanwhile, daily services linking Doha with Melbourne and Auckland will be extended, and Canberra will regain a daily connection via Melbourne.

In Europe, Berlin will increase from 17 to 21 weekly flights from November 1. Bucharest will rise from 11 to 14 weekly between October 25 and November 30, before doubling from seven to 14 weekly in December under the revised schedule.

Madrid will retain 21 weekly flights from December 10 rather than falling to 18, while Frankfurt will increase to 21 weekly between December 7 and January 14. London Heathrow will rise from 50 to 56 weekly flights from October 25 through February 6. Finally, Vienna will rise from 10 to 13 weekly flights in January, reaching 14 from February 7.

Africa shows more frequencies but reduced timetable to the USA
To Africa and the Middle East, Qatar Airways will increase its presence on Abuja-Port Harcourt, which moves from five to seven weekly flights from October 25, and on the Doha-Abidjan-Accra network, where frequencies are being expanded. Services to Kinshasa and Luanda will also increase from three to four weekly from November 4.

To the Middle East, Doha-Riyadh is scheduled to gain a seventh daily flight from November 2, but current attacks towards the Saudi airport could jeopardy the planned route’s expansion. In Iraq, Basra will increase from four to seven weekly from December 29. Although flights to Mashhad, Shiraz and Tehran Imam Khomeini in Iran remain in the schedule filing, reservations are currently unavailable.

Qatar Airways is also reducing frequencies to several US destinations. New York JFK will fall from 18 to 14 weekly flights, Seattle from seven to five, and Washington Dulles from 10 to seven, all from October 25.

Finally, the winter program 2026/2027 confirms the further cancellation of these destinations: Cebu, Djibouti, Hamburg, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, Kano, Malta, Mogadishu, Nagpur, Neom Bay, Sofia and Venice.