Qatar Airways adds five new European routes to British Airways codeshare

- Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)

- Munich Airport (MUC)

- Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG)

- Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport (FCO)

In April, a few days after the expanded codeshare agreement is set to come into effect, Qatar Airways has scheduled 102 weekly flights from Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) to the five European cities. This includes 18 weekly flights to both Berlin and Paris-Charles De Gaulle, three daily flights to both Milan and Rome, and double-daily departures to Munich during the month.

As Thierry Antinori, the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Qatar Airways, told airliners.de, the Qatari carrier will add a third daily flight from Doha to Berlin, with the airline eyeing more routes from/to Germany in coming years. Whether Qatar Airways is allowed to expand in Germany or the European Union (EU) remains uncertain following a Qatar-linked corruption scandal that was at forefront of EU politics in December 2022.

Nevertheless, Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that in April, Qatar Airways has 525 weekly flights to Europe, or 27.7% of its total departures out of Doha-Hamad. London-Heathrow and London Gatwick Airport (LGW) are its most popular European destinations by a wide margin. Collectively, carrier has70 weekly departures from Doha-Hamad to London-Heathrow (56 weekly flights) and London-Gatwick (double-daily flights) during month.

According to Cirium’s Diio Mi data analysis tool,in additionto codesharing on42European destinationsfromLondon-Heathrow,BritishAirwayswillputitsfellowoneworldpartner’s‘QR’designatorcodeonfournon-EuropeanroutesfromtheBritishcity’smainairport.ThisincludesBermudaL.F.WadeInternationalAirport(BDA),BarbadosGrantleyAdamsInternationalAirport(BGI),Doha-Hamad,andNassauLyndenPindlingInternationalAirport(NAS).Meanwhile,QatarAirwaysputstheBritishcarrier’s‘BA’designatorcodeon45non-EuropeanroutesfromDoha-HamadincludingflightstootherMiddleEasterndestinations,AfricaAsiaandOceania.InJuly2023BritishAirwaysdisclosedthatitspartnershipwithQatarAirwayswhichwastheworldslargestairlinejointbusinesscoveringmorethan60countrieswouldbejoinedbyIberiastartinginJulyofthatyearTheSpanishairlinelaunchedflightsfromAdolfoSuárezMadrid–BarajasAirportMADtoDohaHamadinDecember2023IberiawhichthecofounderoftheInternationalAirlinesGroupIAGwithBritishAirwaysisalsopartoftheoneworldairlineallianceRelatedIberiaToServeDohaInJointBusinessPartnershipWithQatarAirwaysBritishAirwaysTheSpanishairlinelaunchadailyserviceDohainDecemberincreaseconnectivityoneworldpartnersPosts