Qatar Airways currently has 5x daily London Heathrow flights. That'll jump to 6x daily from July 17th before reducing to 5x from October 30th, the first day airlines in the northern hemisphere shift to winter schedules.
But don't be misled. This isn't a 'new' sixth daily. It simply adds back what it had for many years as part of its recovery.
The Qatar flag carrier and fellow oneworld member British Airways will have 8x daily Doha to London services from mid-July, with 2x also to Gatwick. Not quite the ten the pair had in late 2018 to 2020, but it is heading in the right direction.
Six daily Heathrow flights
Based on the week beginning July 17th, Qatar Airways' Heathrow schedule is as follows, with all times local. The additional service is highlighted. Two flights will be by the A380 and four by the B777-300ER. (In the same week in 2019, the A380, A350-1000, A350-900, and B777-300ER were used.)
Doha to Heathrow:
- QR11, 0120-06:25, 1x daily, B777-300ER
- QR9, 01:55-07:00 (Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun), A380
- QR9, 03:55-09:00 (Wed), A380
- QR9, 04:00-09:05 (Mon), A380
- QR9, 04:55-10:00 (Fri), A380
- QR3, 08:05-13:10, 1x daily, A380
- QR7, 09:05-14:10, 1x daily, B777-300ER
- QR1, 12:55-18:00; 1x daily, B777-300ER
- QR15, 15:05-20:10, 1x daily, B777-300ER <--- returning
Heathrow to Doha:
- QR10, 09:00-17:40 (Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun), A380
- QR10, 10:50-19:30 (Mon, Wed), A380
- QR10, 11:55-20:35 (Fri), A380
- QR4, 15:05-23:45, 1x daily, A380
- QR8, 16:00-00:40+1, 1x daily, B777-300ER
- QR12, 19:00-03:40+1, 1x daily, B777-300ER
- QR2, 21:20-06:00+1, 1x daily, B777-300ER
- QR16, 21:40-06:20+1, 1x daily, B777-300ER <--- returning
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Qatar Airways at Heathrow
As everyone knows, Qatar Airways revolves around transiting passengers and freight over its Doha hub. According to booking data, over seven in every ten passengers (73%) connected in 2019.
Analyzing where people traveled shows that South Asia was the leading region, with three quarters more passengers than number-two, Southeast Asia. Australia was a distant third.
Africa collectively was reasonably significant too. But in terms of sheer scale, traffic to Southern Africa – Qatar Airways' largest Heathrow-Africa market – was about one-tenth the size of South Asia.
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India: the top country
At a country level, India was top. In 2019, Qatar Airways had 13 routes to India: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Mumbai, Nagpur, and Trivandrum. All remain served in 2022, too, although with fewer flights.
India was followed by Australia, Pakistan, Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Singapore. The importance of visiting friends and relatives and leisure demand is clear to see. Such traffic usually is great for volume but less good for yields.
It all changes again at the airport level. Qatar Airways' leading market from Heathrow was Kathmandu, perhaps helped by not being served by Emirates but only by its narrowbody partner, flydubai. The top ten were as follows:
- Heathrow to/from Kathmandu
- Colombo
- Dhaka
- Bangkok
- Sydney
- Singapore
- Denpasar-Bali
- Kuala Lumpur
- Lahore
- Adelaide
Will you be flying Qatar Airways this year? If so, where are you going? Let us know in the comments.