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Virgin Australia has commenced the second of its four new routes to Doha, with the first flight from Brisbane taking off on Thursday afternoon.
Flight VA15 departed shortly before 3:30pm on the wet-leased Qatar Airways 777-300ER A7-BEE, a week after the launch of the first of Virgin’s restored long-haul services from Sydney on 12 June.
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Perth–Doha services will commence on 26 June, and Melbourne in December. In total, the Virgin services will increase seat capacity between Australia and Qatar to 2.65 million per year.
“This new alliance between Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways creates one of the most comprehensive travel networks available to Australians today,” Virgin Australia chief executive Dave Emerson said.
“Virgin Australia’s new services offer our customers enhanced connectivity, incredible choice and seamless access to over 170 destinations worldwide.
“By December 2025 we will increase the capacity of flights from Australia to Doha by over 2.6 million seats, increasing competition, which ultimately should mean better value for international travel.”
Gert-Jan de Graaff, CEO of Brisbane Airport, said the services will be a boon to tourism in the state.
“This marks the most significant increase in capacity between Queensland and Europe in the past two years, and we’re confident these new daily flights will boost tourism, strengthen international ties, and support Queensland’s exporters,” he said.
“It’s fantastic news for the Brisbane-headquartered airline and even better news for travellers and Queensland’s tourism-driven economy.”
The federal government earlier this year gave Qatar Airways the green light to buy 25 per cent of Virgin Australia, while the ACCC also signed off on the deal.
In a significant concession, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Virgin had agreed to explore dry lease options that could potentially see its own crew operate the flights within three years.
Under a “structured secondment program”, 20 pilots and 40 cabin crew will be sent to Doha this year to gain experience with long-haul flying, with their positions to be backfilled by 60 new Australian staff.
That came after Transport Minister Catherine King controversially rejected a separate attempt for Qatar to launch more international flights directly in 2023.
The promise to explore dry lease options, therefore, allowed the federal government to claim the new agreement was substantially different from the old one and head off criticism from Qantas.
Virgin is also set to return to the ASX on 24 June in a long-anticipated $685 million IPO.
