QATAR AIRWAYS: ‘Winter’ schedule includes more flights to Melbourne and a return to Canberra

The Doha-based airline has announced its northern hemisphere global winter schedule, which includes increased flights to more than 15 global destinations. Two of the destinations are Australian. Qatar will start wet leased flight with Virgin Australia to and from Melbourne and resume flights out of Canberra, that will take a 2.5 hour break in Melbourne in both directions.

Increased and new services

Qatar Airways is also increasing its flights to London to its highest ever at 10 daily. Here is the list of destinations that will gain increased services:

• Abu Dhabi – increased from five daily flights to up to six
• Berlin – increased from 18 weekly flights to up to 21
• Canberra – daily flights commencing December 2025
• Cape Town – increased from 10 weekly flights to up to 12
• Casablanca – increased from four weekly flights to five
• Dublin – increased from 14 weekly flights to 17
• Frankfurt – increased from 18 weekly flights to up to 21
• Johannesburg – increased from 14 weekly flights to 18
• London Heathrow – increased from eight daily flights to up to 10
• Madrid – increased from 14 weekly flights to 17
• Maldives – increased from three daily flights to up to four
• Manchester – increased from 21 weekly flights to up to 24
• Melbourne – wet-leased flights for Virgin Australia
• Phuket – increased from three daily flights to up to four
• São Paulo – increased from 14 weekly flights to 18
• Sharjah – increased from three daily flights to up to seven
• Tokyo Narita – increased from 11 weekly flights to up to 14
• Toronto – increased from five weekly flights to seven

Canberra service

In 2018, Qatar initiated this service to expand its presence in Australia, without exceeding the capacity limits on its flights to Sydney and Melbourne. By commencing and terminating its flights in Canberra, it circumvented the limits on flights in and out of Sydney and Melbourne. The cost was a refuelling stop in Melbourne.

It looks like Qatar is pulling a similar Svengali move this time by running these daily Canberra flights, but via Melbourne as an extension to its current QR988/989 service. A 2.5-hour stopover in Melbourne is breaking the 18-hour trek between Canberra and Doha.

The flights will run as follows:

• QR989 departs Canberra at 12:30 and arrives Doha at 22:25
• QR988 departs Doha at 08:15 arrives Canberra at 08:20 +1 day

This is similar to the original 2018 timings, that was abandoned in 2020. Back then, the route ran via a 2.5 hour break in Sydney rather than Melbourne. In 2022 the route was set to be revived, but was then again abandoned later in 2022.

Canberra flights will be serviced by a Boeing 777 with QSuites in Business Class, and the fast and free Starlink WiFi

2PAXfly Takeout

These sorts of seasonal adjustments occur fairly regularly, although the Canberra route is a little of a surprise. Qatar Airways basically doubled its number of flights into Australia when it acquired its 25% minority stake in Virgin Australia. The partnership enabled the airline to add 28 new weekly return flights between Doha and Australia.

These services, operated by Virgin Australia using wet-leased Qatar Aircraft, connect major cities, including Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth, with Doha from June 2025 and Melbourne from December 2025.