Qatar Airways finally confirms return of 18-hour flights to Australia (full schedule)

Every week, airlines around the world post schedule changes to Cirium Diio, OAG and other platforms. In the latest update Qatar Airways announced that he would return to Canberra, the capital Australia. This will now happen in December, rather than the previously planned September. It is unclear whether the September flights were simply placeholder that were not intended to fly. No matter what, relaunch in December now confirmed.

The resumption itself may not be anything special, especially compared to the cuts to Airbus A380 flights to Guangzhou, Singapore and northern winter service to Sydney. But it deserves attention because of its unusual nature. Qatar Airways doesn’t want to fly to Canberra International Airport (Central Bank of the Russian Federation). This is being done to increase access to markets for critical goods. Melbourne Airport (MEL).

Wait: Qatar Airways will be transferred to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation?!

Credit: Qatar Airways.

one world The participant has been flying from Doha to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation since 2018. Initially flights were operated via Sydney Kingsford Smith airport (SYD) in both directions until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the route to stop in 2020. When service with the CBR resumed, MEL was used as a stopping point instead.

This is a regulatory loophole. Qatar Airways may fly to Australia up to 28 times a week to the country’s four main airports. He used up all this supply, so Virgin Australia (which leases Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to Qatar Airways) flies to the Ministry of Health on its own behalf. The Gulf giant has only a few ways to expand its own Australian routes.

For example, it could reduce the frequency of flights to other major airports in the country, which would be unattractive as it would reduce market share and competitiveness. Alternatively, it could upgrade the planes to increase the number of available seats. But the benefits of market share come from increasing the number of flights.

It could also increase the number of flights, flying through a regional city (which even includes the nation’s capital) or onward into it via a major city. There is no frequency limitation for this option.. This is why Qatar Airways initially flew through SYD and then switched to MEL. (This is why the airline previously served Adelaide Airport (ADL) via MEL.) The carrier has little or no interest in serving CBR. Indeed, between 2018 and 2020, Analytic Flying shows that its then additional flight SYD-CBR typically carried an average of just 38 passengers.

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What’s happening now?

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Qatar Airways last flew CBR in March 2026 before the ongoing war in Iran forced it to cease. The new plan calls for the route to resume on December 8th. Previously the airline operated daily flights, it will now do so four times a week, with the daily offering returning in March 2027 (i.e. the start of the airline’s northern summer season). The non-first-class, three-class, 354-seat Boeing 777-300ER will be deployed.

The schedule for December is presented below. For obvious reasons, passengers cannot only buy a MEL-CBR-MEL ticket. As always, the schedule is based on DOH connections. Remember: most passengers will start or end their flight at MEL rather than CBR. Perhaps surprisingly, booking data from December 2025 to March 2026 shows that Qatar Airways’ most popular market to and from CBR was Jeddah. The rest of the top five included London, Dammam, Muscat and Paris. All of them had a small number of passengers.

The 8:25am departure from DOH to MEL and CBR will be operated by third largest airline Qatar Airways. flying arriving at night from Europe. It will also benefit from a decent amount of inbound services from across the Middle East and Africa. The Middle East arrival time of 10:25 pm will provide the second highest number of Qatar Airways flights to Europe departing DOH early in the morning. The post-midnight period is also key for outbound flights from Africa and the Middle East.

Connected

Qatar Airways abruptly cancels all Airbus A380 flights on major long-haul routes (Map)

This is the latest version of the winter superjumbo schedule. There are now 54% fewer A380 flights planned.

Qatar Airways and Virgin Australia flights DOH-Australia

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Let’s look ahead April 2027. This month Qatar Airways will receive six daily direct flights to Australia. By then his work with ADL, which is currently ongoing Auckland Airport (AKL) will once again become a separate DOH-ADL-DOH service. Virgo will have four daily flights from Australia to the Ministry of Health on behalf of Qatar Airways.

Qatar Airways will fly from DOH to ADL (daily on A350-900), Brisbane Airport (BNE; daily 777-300ER), CBR (daily 777-300ER via MEL), MEL (two daily 777-300ER; one will continue to CBR), Perth (daily 777-300ER) and SYD (daily A380; superjumbo scheduled to return next March). ADL does not take into account the 28 weekly departures limit, while the Gulf operator can fly to MEL twice a day (as well as daily to other major airports) as one flight is extended to CBR.

Meanwhile, Virgin will fly daily from BNE, MEL, PER and SYD to DOH on the 777-300ER. To maximize connectivity at DOH, the two airlines have different schedules and thus each submits specific groups of flights to DOH. This is the most important advantage of the agreement. For example, departures from DOH to MEL will depart at 1:35, 8:25 and 20:20. Increased connectivity helps increase market share and competitiveness.