For several years now, a major expansion project has been underway at Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH). While the biggest phase of that project opened in late 2022, the final stage has just been completed, meaning the airport is now at full capacity. Let’s cover all the details.
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Doha Hamad Airport can now handle 65 million passengers
Doha’s Hamad International Airport opened in 2014. The airport had an initial capacity of 29 million passengers per year, though given Qatar Airways’ ambitious growth, we knew the plan all along was to boost capacity significantly.
In November 2022, we saw the first phase of the expansion complete, whereby the airport’s capacity doubled, to 58 million passengers per year. Not only did capacity increase, but we saw all kinds of cool new features introduced, including a massive indoor tropical garden known as the Orchard, a new Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Lounge, and much more.
Now for the past two years plus, the airport has been working on the final part of its expansion project, which increases capacity to 65 million passengers per year. This project is now complete, with the new gates in use. Specifically, this includes the opening of Concourse D and Concourse E. These new concourses integrate seamlessly into the existing terminal.
The two concourses add 17 new gates to the airport, increasing the total number of gates from 45 to 62. This is an exciting development, given that many Qatar Airways flights have used remote stands, so this should help with that issue.
At this point, the airport’s terminal spans an astonishing 842,000 square meters (a little over nine million square feet).
Doha Hamad Airport is an incredible facility
Personally, I rank Doha Hamad Airport as one of the three best airports in the world. There’s so much to love about this airport, and the latest expansion really solves some of the lingering issues that existed, especially with the heavy use of bus gates.
Doha Hamad Airport has a gorgeous design, I love the indoor garden, the lounge situation is tough to beat, and the retail and food & beverage options are on a different level than most other airports. It’s without a doubt the best major hub in the Middle East.
Now, let me of course emphasize that not everyone is going to have the same experience. If you travel through the airport on a short connection during one of the heavily banked periods, it’s probably going to be pretty chaotic. However, that’s the case at virtually any major period with a banked hub, so that hardly makes Hamad unique.
Bottom line
Doha’s Hamad Airport has completed its significant expansion. The airport doubled capacity in late 2022, and now we’ve seen the capacity increased by over seven million additional passengers per year, bringing the capacity to 65 million passengers.
With the opening of Concourse D and Concourse E, there are now 17 additional gates, which should make the experience at the airport a bit more seamless. When you add in the airport’s excellent lounging and retail, plus the indoor garden, it’s a pleasant facility to transit.
What do you make of the Doha Hamad Airport expansion?
There are some sources, that concourse F is lying on the table. However, when I check DOH with Google map, I notice a well-prepared area, west of Concourse A. Can it be the 6th Concourse of DOH?
I gave up flying Qatar Airways through Doha or maintaining my "Privilege" membership as Hamed International experiences were just getting far too grim - yes, remote stands and buses were frustrating but over-crowded lounges and appallingly rude and over entitled local hire employees was just too much. Thankfully, all the ever charming and hard working staff from Phillipines, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka etc made the transit experience more tolerable but I would certainly never recommend...
I gave up flying Qatar Airways through Doha or maintaining my "Privilege" membership as Hamed International experiences were just getting far too grim - yes, remote stands and buses were frustrating but over-crowded lounges and appallingly rude and over entitled local hire employees was just too much. Thankfully, all the ever charming and hard working staff from Phillipines, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka etc made the transit experience more tolerable but I would certainly never recommend this airport to anybody.
Sadly, as many here have noted, it is likely that the bus gate situation will see only a temporary relief as the airline keeps growing. Another problem is that the new contact gates are very far from the last stop on the people mover, so get ready for a lot more walking if you come from the city or connect to or from gates in the older part of the terminal.
I am personally...
Sadly, as many here have noted, it is likely that the bus gate situation will see only a temporary relief as the airline keeps growing. Another problem is that the new contact gates are very far from the last stop on the people mover, so get ready for a lot more walking if you come from the city or connect to or from gates in the older part of the terminal.
I am personally also not a fan of the new QR lounge. Too much light pollution from the retail/garden atrium and the quality of finishes is significantly below the original lounge.
The remote gates aka bus gates are a pain. Qatar seems to run 1 Biz class bus at start of boarding and 1 at the end. End up standing for 30-45 mins because bus gates have inadequate seating. And then lug carry on up the stairs. Even low cost carrier Indigo has staff to help passengers carry the bags up the stairs at the aircraft
Never loved this airport, because even after 10 years of being open, they still have a habit of using remote stands and buses. Also having to go through security too many times which is never smooth.
I love DOH and QR makes every trip better. Hopefully the expansion doesn't take anything away. I used to enjoy DXB, but now it's bedlam.
The public toilets are rather drab and smelly. That's a big downside.
I'll be there in 2 weeks. Any suggestions on where to go / what to see during my 3.5 hour layover? (flying J in QR)
Thanks
Visit the Museum of Islamic Art. It's a world-class museum housed in an interesting building designed by I.M. Pei.
Tough to beat, unless you’re female and are forced to undergo compulsory virginity exams, or whatever else the security forces feel is a good move on the day you pass through there - but look, the orchard, the lounges, the bling. Bestest.
Like other airports don't have even worse problems??
"the lounge situation is tough to beat"… unless you're using priority pass where you have access to a grand total of one overcrowded lounge.
There used to be a lot more. I've been flying through DOH frequently since 2018 until my last time a bit over a year ago. I just checked my Priority Pass app and yes, there seems to only be one lounge now. On my last trip, there were two Al Maha lounges (one in the new expansion), as well as a few more lounges. Not sure what happened. That's pretty unfortunate...
Wait, they only had 45 gates??
As the new gates are meant to expand capacity the bus gates are not going to go away. And if you look at how many bus gates there are, and how busy they are at peak, I don't think the new gates are going to make a significant dent in the bus gate operations.
There may be a short term dip, in bus gate usage but as Qatar Airways keep expanding it is all going to come back.
Bus gates are wonderful they drop you off directly at the C Concourse and not having to go through another secondary security during flight transfer. It happened to me twice last year the bus dropped me off without having to go through another security screening at Concourse C.
Hi Ben, I'm not sure if it's worth an article but Athens Airport just announced its plans to majorly expand and almost double capacity. The plans were in the works for a while but yesterday the renderings came out. Here's the relevant source: https://ered.gr/real-estate-news/the-transformation-of-athens-international-airport-photos
Definitely worth an article
Also Avianca lounge at MIA is back, now in partnership with TAP. Not sure if they reopened at the same location https://www.miamiherald.com/living/travel/article302194094.html
MIA Avianca lounge is indeed open to Priority pass, because of the TAP partnership, Google did not index the new landing page yet:
https://www.prioritypass.com/lounges/usa/miami-fl-international/mia17-avtap-vip-lounge
I had no idea an airline with almost 250 aircraft that banks flights three times a day only had 45 gates to work with.
I know you said many use remote stands but this must be a nightmare for those three periods at day when everyone is connecting??
It isn't too bad. Just a little inconvenient.
But I believe DOH has over 60 remote gates. The good thing is that the terminal is extremely spacious (even prior to the expansion) with high ceilings. There is also a lot of seating at the airport.
Also, it's important to note that while QR has 250 aircraft, many of their flights are longer compared to most legacy worldwide carriers. That means that a lot...
It isn't too bad. Just a little inconvenient.
But I believe DOH has over 60 remote gates. The good thing is that the terminal is extremely spacious (even prior to the expansion) with high ceilings. There is also a lot of seating at the airport.
Also, it's important to note that while QR has 250 aircraft, many of their flights are longer compared to most legacy worldwide carriers. That means that a lot of their planes only operate a few flights a day, with aircraft flying to Europe getting about 2-3 flights in per day. That's one round-trip and maybe an additional flight. Most of their farther flights to Asia and Southern Africa take one airframe to operate daily. They also have a good number of ultra long haul flights to North America, South America, and Oceania which require more than one airframe to operate a daily frequency (and many of these routes have multiple daily flights). As a result, not all of their planes are in DOH at once.