Guide to Virgin Australia’s Flights to Doha

Virgin Australia will soon return to long-haul flying after almost five years, with the launch of routes from Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to Doha in June 2025. Flights from Melbourne to Doha will follow in December.

Tickets have been on sale since December, and Virgin Australia received final approval from the ACCC to operate these flights in late March. This week, the airline revealed new details about these flights including benefits that will be available to Velocity members.

These services will be marketed by Virgin Australia but operated under a “wet lease” arrangement by Qatar Airways, which is also buying a 25% stake in Australia’s second-largest airline.

All of Virgin’s Doha flights will be on board Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER jets with Qsuites in Business Class. Qatar Airways pilots and cabin crew will staff the planes, but Virgin Australia will likely provide the food and amenities on board.

Unfortunately, these flights won’t use the ex-Virgin Australia Boeing 777s that Qatar Airways is now flying with Virgin’s original cabin interiors. Well, outside of one-off aircraft swaps, anyway.

Virgin Australia’s Doha schedules

Virgin Australia will operate one daily flight from Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne to Doha in addition to the existing Qatar Airways flights. They will fly at different times of the day, offering customers more choice.

All of the Australia-Doha flights are timed to connect with one of Qatar Airways’ arrival or departure banks at Doha’s Hamad International Airport. In other words, they’re timed to offer short connections beyond Doha, including to destinations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Qatar Airways currently flies Boeing 777-300ERs to Brisbane and Melbourne, and Airbus A380s to Sydney and Perth. From June 2025, Qatar will downgrade its Perth-Doha service from an A380 to a Boeing 777-300ER. This means Perth will lose Qatar Airways First Class service, but Business Class gets an upgrade to Qsuites.

Here are the full schedules…

Sydney-Doha schedule

Virgin Australia’s first route to Qatar will be Sydney-Doha, which starts on 12 June 2025. Below are the schedules for the new Virgin Australia (VA) service, in bold, and the existing Qatar Airways (QR) flights:

• VA1 Sydney 14:50 – Doha 22:50 – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR909 Sydney 20:45 – Doha 04:55 (+1 day) – Airbus A380

And in the other direction:

• VA2 Doha 09:15 – Sydney 06:15 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR908 Doha 20:05 – Sydney 17:10 – Airbus A380

Brisbane-Doha schedule

Virgin’s Brisbane-Doha commence a week later on 19 June 2025. This is the new combined schedule:

• VA15 Brisbane 15:10 – Doha 23:00 – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR899 Brisbane 22:15 – Doha 06:00 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER

• VA16 Doha 01:40 – Brisbane 22:45 – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR898 Doha 20:25 – Brisbane 17:30 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER

Perth-Doha schedule

Virgin Australia Perth-Doha flights start on 26 June 2025:

• VA21 Perth 15:20 – Doha 21:50 – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR901 Perth 22:45 – Doha 05:15 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER

• VA22 Doha 19:50 – Perth 11:55 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR900 Doha 02:30 – Perth 18:35 – Boeing 777-300ER

Melbourne-Doha schedule

Virgin Australia will start flying the Melbourne-Doha route on 1 December 2025, alongside two daily Qatar Airways flights. This is the schedule:

• VA7 Melbourne 17:10 – Doha 23:30 – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR989 Melbourne 16:10 – Doha 22:30 – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR905 Melbourne 23:30 – Doha 05:50 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER

• VA8 Doha 01:40 – Melbourne 23:05 – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR988 Doha 08:30 – Melbourne 05:55 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER
• QR904 Doha 21:00 – Melbourne 18:25 (+1 day) – Boeing 777-300ER

Qatar Airways currently already has two daily Melbourne-Doha flights, but one of them has a weird Melbourne-Adelaide leg attached to it which flies almost empty most days. From 1 December 2025, Qatar’s Doha-Melbourne-Adelaide flight will change to a much better-timed Doha-Melbourne-Canberra service.

Velocity Reward Seat bookings to Doha

Virgin Australia first released reward seats to/from Doha for Velocity Frequent Flyer bookings in January 2025. There is a bit of availability, including in Business Class, but you may need to look for it and be flexible with your travel dates and routings.

According to the chart on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website, flights between Australia and Doha cost the following amounts of Velocity points:

There’s also a carrier charge, in addition to the third-party fees & taxes. This is USD60 (~AU$93) per segment in Economy or USD230 (~AU$358) per segment in Business Class.

Note that the Velocity website states:

The number of Points displayed above are the minimum number of Points required to book a Reward Seat on the most direct routes.  When a single booking includes: multiple flights with a break in the journey (at least 24 hours between flights); a change in cabin class; multiple airlines on one itinerary; or a VA domestic connection to a VA long haul flight; the number of Points required for Reward Seats will be higher.  Please refer to the VA domestic or partner airline table for the respective connecting flight value.

In other words, you can add a connecting Qatar Airways flight onto the same ticket and won’t pay a points “penalty”. But you will need to pay more points to add a connecting Virgin Australia domestic or short-haul flight onto the same ticket as a flight to/from Doha.

A one-way trip from Sydney to London via Doha would cost 80,000 Velocity Points in Economy or 158,500 Velocity Points in Business, plus taxes & carrier charges.

Upgrading on Virgin flights to Doha using Velocity Points

From 1 July 2025, Velocity Frequent Flyer members will be able to upgrade from Economy to Business Class using points.

Velocity Gold and Platinum members have the option to upgrade from an Economy Choice or Flex fare. All other Velocity members can only upgrade if booked on an Economy Flex fare.

This is the number of Velocity points you would need to request an upgrade each way between Australia and Doha:

The only way to request an upgrade will be to call the Velocity Membership Contact Centre at least 24 hours before departure. There is currently no way to upgrade with points online or at the airport.

Upgrade waitlist priority

If there is a Business Reward seat available at the time of requesting an upgrade, it could be confirmed immediately.

Otherwise, you can request to go onto an upgrade waitlist. Virgin Australia will process this waitlist up to 24 hours before departure, with priority in the upgrade queue based on:

• Platinum, then Gold, Silver and Red members booked on Economy Flex tickets
• Behind them, Platinum and then Gold members booked on Economy Choice tickets

Food & beverage vouchers in Doha for Velocity members

In a unique benefit, all Velocity Frequent Flyer and Qatar Airways Privilege Club members flying from Doha with Virgin Australia will receive a USD20 meal voucher to spend at Doha’s Hamad International Airport. To redeem this, simply scan your Virgin Australia boarding pass with your Velocity or Privilege Club number showing on it. You can find a list of participating eateries on the Velocity website.

Velocity Gold and Platinum members can also enjoy lounge access before departure.

Why is Virgin Australia flying to Doha?

This wet lease arrangement is effectively a backdoor way for Qatar Airways to increase its capacity into Australia, after the Australian government blocked it from doing so with its own flights.

Under the bilateral air service agreement between Qatar and Australia, Qatari airlines are only allowed 28 weekly flights into Australia’s major airports. For years, Qatar Airways has been trying to increase this number. But the Australian government infamously stalled and then blocked the granting of additional rights after Qantas – reportedly at the behest of Emirates – lobbied hard against it.

This decision was widely criticised by most Australian aviation industry stakeholders other than Qantas, and ended up becoming the subject of a senate inquiry last year.

With Qatar Airways unable to operate more of its own flights, the airline is now buying a 25% stake in Virgin Australia and getting its Australian partner to sell the extra flights. It’s a clever strategy.

But Virgin Australia has not operated any long-haul flights since 2020. In fact, it no longer has any wide-body aircraft. That’s why Virgin is wet leasing the planes needed to fly to Doha from Qatar Airways.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.