Qatar Airways serves Doha to Paris CDG 3x daily. Currently, the A380 is used 1x daily. Before this weekend's schedule upload, Qatar Airways was to deploy the superjumbo to Paris throughout the winter. However, things have changed, influenced by the A380's return to Perth. It'll barely use the quadjet to CDG this winter, but next summer, the route will be back at 2x daily A380.

What's happening?

Qatar Airways deploys three-class, first-class-equipped, 517-seat A380 to Paris 1x daily. Fed by the oneworld airline's largest number of arrivals from across Asia-Pacific, flight QR39 departs Doha at 07:45 and arrives in France at 13:55 local. Returning, flight QR40 leaves CDG at 16:05 and arrives home at 23:25, in time to feed its largest volume of Asia-Pacific-bound flights.

Until this weekend, the plan was to continue serving the route like this throughout winter. However, Qatar Airways' last superjumbo flight to Paris is on December 5th – Perth resumes on the 6th – and it won't return until March 26th, the first day of the Northern Hemisphere summer season 2022.

Qatar Airways A380 Paris CDG
Photo: Eric Salard via Flickr.

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Winter schedule

Aviation-wise, winter 2022 runs from October 30th until March 25th. Looking at December 6th onwards, while equipment has changed, frequency hasn't. It'll still serve CDG 3x daily, with the schedule as follows. Where more than one aircraft type is planned, they're listed in the order of flights:

Doha to Paris CDG: December 6th-March 25th

  1. 01:20-06:30 (sometimes 01:25-06:35): QR41, B777-300ER
  2. 07:55-13:05: QR39, mainly B787-9 but also the B777-300ER, B787-8
  3. 15:20-20:30 (sometimes 14:50-20:00): QR37, mainly B787-8 but also the B777-300ER

Paris CDG to Doha: December 6th-March 25th

  1. 08:25-16:50 (sometimes 08:35-17:00): QR42, B777-300ER
  2. 15:05-23:30: QR40, mainly B787-9 but also the B777-300ER, B787-8
  3. 22:05-06:30+1 (sometimes 22:00-06:25), mainly B787-8 but also the B777-300ER

The removal of the A380 means that, between December 6th and March 25th, Qatar Airways has 205,662 Paris seats for sale, according to OAG data. That's down by 44,628 from the 250,920 it had expected last week, a drop of 18%. No doubt it'll help to improve its winter seat load factors and revenue per available seat mile, two fundamental route performance metrics. It's unclear to what degree demand 'spillage' will be a factor from nearly one in five seats being cut.

Qatar Airways Paris CDG
When writing, A380 A7-APH is operating QR39 to CDG with the call sign Qatari One Eight X-ray. It'll be non-quadjet from December 6th until March 25th. Image: Flightradar24.

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2x daily A380 to Paris next summer

As of September 19th and subject to change, Qatar Airways intends to bring back the superjumbo to CDG from March 26th, the first day airlines switch to summer 2023 schedules. And for the first time since March 2020, it'll be 2x daily:

Doha to Paris CDG: summer 2023

  1. 01:25-07:25: QR41, A380
  2. 07:55-13:55: QR39, A380
  3. 14:55-20:55: QR37, B787-9

Paris CDG to Doha: summer 2023

  1. 09:30-16:50: QR42, A380
  2. 16:05-23:30: QR40, A380
  3. 22:25-05:45+1, QR38, B787-9
Qatar Airways Paris top 10 transit markets
The airline's ten largest transit markets to/from Paris in 2019. Image: GCMap. Source: booking data.

Second 'super' user to Paris

Since Air France and Etihad Airways withdrew the type and Asiana, Korean Air, and Singapore Airlines have no plans to return it to Paris, the remaining options to fly it is with Qatar Airways or Emirates.

Next summer, CDG will have 5x daily A380 flights. Leaving France, they'll depart at 09:30 (Doha), 11:25 (Dubai), 15:35 (Dubai), 16:05 (Doha), and 21:55 (Dubai).

Have you flown Qatar's double-deckers to France? If so, share your experience in the comments.