VIRGIN AUSTRALIA: Cuts Doha flights on Qatar jets as bookings lag

Virgin Australia’s high-profile partnership with Qatar Airways is facing an early recalibration, with several Australia–Doha services reduced across late summer and autumn schedules.

The services are operated by Qatar aircraft but sold under Virgin’s code, allowing passengers to earn Velocity Status Credits on long-haul sectors from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to Doha.

On paper, the arrangement gave Virgin Australia a global footprint without owning a single widebody aircraft. In practice, the numbers suggest the rollout hasn’t been as strong as hoped. Or possibly this is just a seasonal blip.

Flight cuts

The cuts affect flights to Doha out of Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. Most are reductions in frequency for several months, but still represent a significant reduction in available seats on the route. The question is, are these just low season adjustments, that will be reversed when we hit shoulder or peak season? Or, are this more permanant reductions?

Here are the details.

Perth cuts: QR901/QR900 or VA21/VA22

Between 16 February and 16 March, Virgin has reduced two weekly frequencies on the Perth–Doha rotation.

The flights affected are:

• QR901/VA21 PER–DOH (operated by Qatar Airways)
  Typically departs Perth late evening (22:45), arriving Doha early morning (05:15)
• QR900/VA22 DOH–PER
  Departs Doha mid-evening (20:30), arriving Perth late afternoon (18:45)

Boeing 777-300ER in Qatar’s long-haul configuration are used on this route, consisting of:

• 42 Qsuite Business Class seats
• 24 Premium Economy (on refitted aircraft, where applicable)
• ~312 Economy seats (depending on configuration

With roughly 354 seats per flight, removing two weekly rotations over a month equates to approximately 6,372 seats withdrawn from the Perth market.

For Western Australia, which relies heavily on long-haul connectivity to Europe and the Middle East, that’s a meaningful capacity dip.

Brisbane cuts: QR899/QR898 or VA6133/VA6132

Flights out of Brisbane is also seeing two weekly frequencies cut during the same 16 February–16 March period.

Affected services include:

• QR899/VA6133 BNE–DOH
  Departs Brisbane late evening (21:55), arrives Doha early morning (05:00)
• QR898/VA6132 DOH–BNE
  Departs Doha evening (20:00), arrives Brisbane late afternoon (17:30)

These flights are operated by Airbus A350-1000 aircraft configured with approximately:

• 46 Qsuite Business seats
• 281 Economy seats

Total: 327 seats per flight.

Removing two weekly frequencies over a four-week period removes roughly 7,788 seats from Brisbane’s long-haul capacity.

Adelaide cuts: QR915/QR914 or VA6125/VA612

Qatar has reduced Adelaide–Doha services by two flights per week between 13 April and 15 June.

The flights involved are:

• QR915/VA6125 ADL–DOH
  departs Adelaide (ADL) at 22:00, arrives Doha (DOH) at 04:00 +1 day
• QR914/VA612 DOH–ADL
  departs Doha (DOH) at 20:20, arrives Adelaide (ADL) 16:14 same day.

Adelaide is generally served by the Airbus A350-900, configured with:

• 36 Qsuite Business seats
• 247 Economy seats

Total: 283 seats.

Across the two-month period, this reduction removes a substantial 14,160 seats from the South Australian market.

Why this matters beyond the numbers

Industry sources suggest Virgin is receiving around 10% of bookings on these Qatar-operated flights when sold under the Virgin code.

That low figure is important since it indicates roughlyt the revenue Vigin Australia is receiving from the code-share agreement. While Velocity members can earn Status Credits when booking via Virgin, many travellers may still default to booking directly with Qatar, particularly for premium cabins, and that is a loss of revenue to Virgin.

This indicates that the partnership generates brand presence but may not yet be driving sufficient Virgin-coded revenue.

The politics

One incentive for Qatar Airways to form this arrangement with Virgin Australia was the Australian government’s resistance to double Qatar’s bilateral capacity to Australia.

Qantas objected strongly to the increase, and the federal government declined Qatar’s expansion request. That seems to be the prompt for Qatar to deepen its links to Virgin, including acquiring a 25% stake in the company.

The Virgin Australia tie-up and wet leasing, and codesharing of Doha services is widely viewed as a strategic workaround for the denied bilateral capacity expansion. But now, Qatar is reportedly back in discussions about expanded air rights. That may affect the durability of the partnership long-term.

2PAXfly Takeout

These are are targeted trims to capacity during the traditional low demand shoulder season. For travellers, this reduction in capacity limits choice and any downward pressure on prices.

For Virgin Australia, it’s a reminder that selling long-haul flying without owning the aircraft requires more than a codeshare. It requres more, and cleverer marketing to change customer behaviour, and to restore an international brand identity for Virgin Australia.

What has been seen as a very clever pivot by both Qatar and Virgin may not be as clever as we all thought. For Qatar it was a way to double flights, without a fight with the Federal Government. For Virgin it was a way to get back into the international long-haul market without investing billions in aircraft and additional crew and pilots.

Let’s hope that the Virgin–Qatar partnership isn’t in trouble, but just going through an adjustment phase.

If Qatar eventually secures more direct rights, the real test will be whether Virgin remains effectively just a distribution partner or will it be relegated to a stepping stone for Qatar Airways Australian ambitions.