Qatar Airways plans return to Canberra in 2025

After what will be a near-six-year hiatus on serving Australia’s capital, Qatar Airways plans to resume Canberra flights from late 2025. Linking Canberra with the airline’s hub in Doha, the daily services will detour via Melbourne in each direction. As such, the airline’s existing Adelaide-Melbourne-Doha flights will cease.

It all comes down to traffic rights between Australia and Qatar. Qatar Airways is currently permitted 28 direct weekly return flights between Qatar and Australia’s four busiest airports. That’s Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. In addition, the airline can run seven weekly return services via one of the same airports, which begin or end in a different Australian city. Herein lies the opportunity for Canberra.

While there are no traffic restrictions on direct Canberra-Doha flights, Canberra’s population has always been a hindrance to securing international flights. Especially so, on long-haul routes served by widebody aircraft. But the Melbourne detour allows Qatar to serve Canberra with its own aircraft, without requiring Canberra-based travellers to fill the plane.

Essentially, on these flights, Qatar Airways can also sell tickets to passengers flying solely between Melbourne and Doha. This helps take the burden off of Canberra itself, while still enabling Canberra to be served. Qatar Airways can’t sell flights to travellers solely jetting between Melbourne and Canberra, though.

How Qatar Airways’ Canberra flights will work

Qatar Airways’ first Doha-Melbourne-Canberra flight will depart Qatar on 1 December 2025. Those flying solely to Melbourne will arrive in Victoria, collect their bags, clear immigration and be on their way – just like any other international arrival. Those continuing to Canberra will clear ‘international’ transit security. From there, it’ll be time to reboard the aircraft and continue the journey. In which case, baggage and passport checks will take place upon arrival in Canberra.

Out of Canberra, the first Canberra-Melbourne-Doha service takes off on 2 December 2025. Passengers boarding in Canberra will clear outbound passport control and international security screening in Canberra. In Melbourne, having just been through international security screening in Australia, passengers would have direct access to the international departures concourse, without having to clear security again. From there, they’d reboard the same aircraft, bound for Doha.

These flights will be operated using Qatar Airways’ Boeing 777 aircraft. The airline advises that these flights will offer Qsuite Business Class, as well as free high-speed Starlink inflight Wi-Fi.

It’s a timely boost to our local tourism industry with aviation access being the biggest driver to growth in the sector and it’s great news for Canberrans wanting to travel overseas, particularly to Europe, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.

Qatar Airways’ return will benefit the whole Canberra region, providing tourism, trade, investment and a range of business opportunities. It will also make an important contribution towards the Government’s goal of growing our tourism economy to AU$5 billion in visitor expenditure by 2030.

– Andrew Barr, ACT Chief Minister, 16 December 2024

These new flights to and from Canberra are now on sale.

New Canberra flights bring a change for Adelaide

Current traffic rights between Australia and Qatar only permit one such multi-city flight via a major Australian airport. Currently, Qatar Airways is using that permission to operate a daily service between Adelaide and Doha, which also happens to route via Melbourne.

Once Qatar Airways’ new flights commence to Canberra, the existing Adelaide-Melbourne-Doha service will cease. Essentially, the number of flights from Melbourne remains the same. For Adelaide, it’ll mean a reduction from double-daily to single daily Qatar Airways flights. And of course, for Canberra, it means a new service.

Speaking of Adelaide, Qatar Airways already offers non-stop Adelaide-Doha flights. This route isn’t subject to the usual traffic caps from Australia’s four largest airports. Thus, Qatar can continue running direct Adelaide-Doha services without impacting the number of flights it can deploy to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

On the one hand, it’s a small loss for Adelaide with a reduction in departing services. But on the other, the travel experience for those jetting between Adelaide and Doha will improve. No longer will some of these passengers need to fly via Melbourne, remaining glued to Melbourne’s international departures area until boarding the same plane to where they really wanted to fly to. Instead, all flights running from Doha to Adelaide will simply land in Adelaide.

Qatar Airways previously served Canberra via Sydney. But this route ceased in March 2020 as international travel restrictions kicked in. The airline previously planned to resume Canberra flights as early as 2022, but these plans were subsequently pushed back.

The news come as Virgin Australia begins selling new ‘wet lease’ flights operated by Qatar Airways from Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to Doha, with sales from Melbourne to follow. These flights, which are subject to government approval, are planned to commence in 2025.

Also read: Virgin Australia’s new flights to Doha now on sale

Imagery courtesy of Qatar Airways.

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