Finnair launches 3 routes to Doha in partnership with Qatar Airways

[Mattg]

Finnair will soon launch daily flights from Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen to Doha, in a joint venture with Qatar Airways. The airline says it will also soon launch flights from a fourth European airport to Doha.

The flights will be operated by A330s with Finnair's new business and premium economy seats. Obviously the flights will be timed to connect onwards to QR's extensive network.

Interesting new strategy for Finnair, which is currently unable to fly many of its Asian routes that were previously its bread and butter. These routes replace the current limited long-haul network that had been operating out of Stockholm.

I think this is the first time Finnair has operated a regular long-haul flight from CPH.

News | Finnair

company.finnair.com

 

[Princess Fiona]

Here’s the schedule. They all arrive in DOH just before midnight.
Aeroroutes

 

[AIRwin]

The airline says it will also soon launch flights from a fourth European airport to Doha.

Oslo?

 

[Mattg]

Oslo?

That would be the obvious one.

I wonder if QR has agreed to hand over the operation of its Scandinavian routes to Finnair due to a lack of available aircraft (while Finnair has so many surplus frames that it's currently operating aircraft on a wet-lease basis for Eurowings Discover and British Airways).

 

[RooFlyer]

Wonder what effect this will have on the Finnair 'RTW' ticket ( not necessarily RTW).

 

[Mattg]

Wonder what effect this will have on the Finnair 'RTW' ticket ( not necessarily RTW).

Presumably a good effect. It will probably open up the possibility to fly Australia-Doha on QR, connecting on AY to Scandinavia.

 

[RooFlyer]

AY's 'RTW' previously excluded the Middle East, didn't it? Will have to look up the rules when I get home.

 

[dajop]

Interesting. QR seem to be expanding their reach and/or frequencies through these joint agreements, MH are now double daily KUL-DOH, which surprised me. To a lesser extent AA have JFK-DOH and of course there are the joint operations with BA. But QF? I don't think so.

 

[SYD]

Interesting. QR seem to be expanding their reach and/or frequencies through these joint agreements, MH are now double daily KUL-DOH, which surprised me. To a lesser extent AA have JFK-DOH and of course there are the joint operations with BA. But QF? I don't think so.

Except I read on one blog that these flights are at the expense of QR metal. So some are complaining that its a downgrade.

But that aside, if I can book an AY fare to Europe via DOH at a comparable fare via SIN, HKG etc and fly QR, I don’t mind (well, except for the coughty SCs…).

 

[Ktan89]

Will QR cancel their flights? I have OWA booking DOH - ARN in Dec.

 

[SYD]

Will QR cancel their flights? I hope not because I got DOH to ARN in Dec and AMS to DOH in Jan with QF OWA booking.

Keep an eye on the 1st one but so far AMS-DOH is unaffected.

 

[RooFlyer]

Will QR cancel their flights? I have OWA booking DOH - ARN in Dec and AMS to DOH in Jan with QF OWA booking.

The news release says 'start between November and December 2022'. The World Cup in Qatar starts around 21 Nov, ends 19 Dec and QR have already said that they will be suspending some routes to free up aircraft to increase services to countries that have qualified. Of the Nordic countries, only Denmark has qualified, as have the Netherlands I wouldn't be confident of QR metal going to ARN until late December, if at all.

 

[Ktan89]

I've been reading more on this, it says they will code share. If QR metal won't fly, they should put me on AY metal with a QR flight number right?
I think the AY flights will replace QR as the flight times are almost the same.

 

[SYD]

I've been reading more on this, it says they will code share. If QR metal won't fly, they should put me on AY metal with a QR flight number right?
I think the AY flights will replace QR as the flight times are almost the same.

Yep, that was the gist of my earlier comment and some of the coverage. QR are short ac and AY have excess capacity.

 

[Ktan89]

OK, here we go guys...
I just searched ITA and the QR flights DOH - ARN are all gone..
waiting for the new AY flight to go up.

No direct flight for DOH - ARN and DOH - CPH right now.
DOH - HEL has available AY flight and no more QR

 

[SYD]

OK, here we go guys...
I just searched ITA and the QR flights DOH - ARN are all gone..
waiting for the new AY flight to go up.

No direct flight for DOH - ARN and DOH - CPH right now.
DOH - HEL has available AY flight and no more QR
View attachment 290902

View attachment 290904

Strange. I was looking for speculative QR flights to Europe next year (ex-SYd) and there was nothing on ITA Matrix for QR - at all.

 

[FenderQF]

OW RTW itinerary had a leg from HEL - DOH on QR A320 flying late March. Just changed to AY A330 with the new fit out. Not a bad upgrade with the new business product and the roulette you get with some of the QR A320s.

 

[usmantk]

Will QR cancel their flights? I have OWA booking DOH - ARN in Dec.

Qr has shifted two of my Helsinki - Doha flights to Finnair codeshare automatically

 

[SYD]

Apparently AY has expanded this to codeshares DOH<->Oz. I thought I started a new thread yesterday but it didn’t stick? Anyway, saw this on FB yesterday…