In July 2023, Japan Airlines (JAL) announced plans to launch a new route to Doha. At the time, the airline hadn’t revealed the exact launch date or schedule, though that has finally changed, and the flight is now on sale.
This is a pretty major development — not only is it the carrier’s first new long haul route in years, but it’s the first time that a Japanese airline is flying nonstop to the Middle East.
Japan Airlines launching new route to Doha
As of March 31, 2024, Japan Airlines will launch a new daily year-round service between Tokyo Haneda (HND) and Doha (DOH) using a Boeing 787-9. The flight will operate with the following schedule:
JL59 Tokyo to Doha departing 10:50PM arriving 4:40AM (+1 day)
JL50 Doha to Tokyo departing 7:15AM arriving 11:55PM
The Tokyo to Doha route covers a distance of 5,141 miles, and is blocked at 11hr50min westbound and 10hr40min eastbound.
Doha is of course the mega-hub of oneworld airline Qatar Airways. Currently Japan Airlines codeshares on Qatar Airways’ route between Doha and Tokyo, and that will continue to be the case even after Japan Airlines starts its own service. Furthermore, Qatar Airways will codeshare on Japan Airlines’ service. Qatar Airways operates twice daily flights in the market, so I’m curious if those frequencies are maintained, or if the Japan Airlines service replaces one of them.
Presumably the primary intent here is to feed Japan Airlines passengers into Qatar Airways’ network. Doha is an efficient connecting point for those traveling to destinations across the Middle East, Africa, South America, Europe, and beyond. The flight times are clearly timed to optimize connectivity in Doha rather than Tokyo, which is logical enough.
Doha’s growing oneworld partner presence
Qatar Airways really dominates Doha Hamad Airport, though it’s impressive the extent to which other oneworld airlines have started service to the airport. The airport now has flights from oneworld partners American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, and SriLankan Airlines.
It’s my understanding that Qatar has been offering some very lucrative incentives for partners to launch service to Doha, beyond the typical kinds of offers we see for airlines starting new routes (like waived landing fees, etc.). So I imagine that has contributed to the amount of growth we’ve seen from oneworld partners.
Filling planes to and from Doha is easy, given how much of the world’s population lives within a short distance of the Middle East. The challenge is filling these planes profitably, since these are often flights in fairly low yield markets, with passengers traveling very long distances.
Bottom line
Japan Airlines will launch a new daily flight between Tokyo and Doha as of March 2024 using a Boeing 787. The schedule for this route has now been published, and flights are on sale. This is Japan Airlines’ first new long haul route in years, and it’s also part of the continued growth we’ve seen from oneworld partners at Doha Airport.
What do you make of Japan Airlines launching Doha flights?
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