Qatar Airways has announced plans to launch service to two new destinations in South America, as part of a triangle flight. We learned about the carrier’s intentions for this service several weeks back, but it’s now official.
In this post:
Qatar Airways will fly to Colombia & Venezuela
As of early summer 2025, Qatar Airways intends to launch a new route that will serve two destinations in South America. Specifically, the airline will fly from Doha, Qatar (DOH), to Bogota, Colombia (BOG). Then on the return, the airline will fly via Caracas, Venezuela (CCS), with pick-up and drop-off rights there.
The airline will operate twice weekly, on Wednesdays and Sundays in both directions, using the Boeing 777-200LR. While Qatar Airways will be able to pick-up and drop-off passengers in Caracas, a major motivation for the stop is that Bogota is at such a high altitude that an aircraft couldn’t fly nonstop to Doha without major payload restrictions. Meanwhile routing via Caracas, which is at a lower altitude, makes that all possible.
Once this launches, it will be one of Qatar Airways’ longest routes. The Doha to Bogota segment covers a distance of 8,261 miles. For the return via Caracas, the first segment covers 636 miles, while the second segment covers 7,630 miles. The Caracas stop adds only five miles to the direct air distance.
For context on the length of that flight, Qatar Airways’ flights to California and Texas all cover somewhere around 8,000 to 8,300 miles, so this flight will be a comparable length. Meanwhile Qatar Airways’ longest route is to New Zealand, and that flight covers just over 9,000 miles.
Here’s how Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer describes this service:
“The launch of flights to Bogotá and Caracas marks a transformative moment for Qatar Airways and for travellers to South America. As the first airline to offer nonstop service from the Middle East to Colombia and the only Middle Eastern carrier flying to Venezuela, we are creating new opportunities to connect people, cultures, and commerce.
“Passengers can look forward to experiencing Qatar Airways’ world-class in-flight hospitality as we continue to reach new heights in long-haul travel with our second longest flight into the Americas. These routes embody our commitment to pioneering travel experiences and redefining global connectivity with our award-winning service.”
How this fits into Qatar Airways’ network
Currently Qatar Airways’ only destination in South America is Sao Paulo, Brazil (GRU), which is served twice daily. Before the pandemic, Qatar Airways also had a tag flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE), but that’s no longer operated. Bogota and Caracas will be Qatar Airways’ 15th and 16th destinations in the Americas.
I’m not super familiar with the economics of ultra long haul service to Northern South America. On the one hand, this seems like a really long route, and you need decent yields to make the economics of service like this work.
On the other hand, Qatar Airways owns a stake in LATAM, which has a decent network out of Bogota. So between LATAM and general interline opportunities, this would potentially capture traffic headed to the top half of South America. Also keep in mind that connecting in the United States can be complicated for some, given that you need a visa to transit the United States internationally.
The pick-up and drop-off rights in Caracas are interesting as well, and one wonders how much potential traffic there will be on that route. Turkish Airlines offers up to twice daily flights from Istanbul (IST) to Caracas, so clearly there’s some demand, I’d be fascinated to see where people connect from that flight, beyond Istanbul.
Speaking of Middle Eastern airlines flying to Bogota and transiting the United States, Qatar Airways won’t be the first Gulf carrier to fly to Bogota. In June 2024, we saw Emirates add a new fifth freedom flight to Bogota out of Miami (MIA), as an extension of the carrier’s existing service to Miami.
As you can see, Emirates is taking a totally different approach there, for better or worse. The airline is able to capture some of the Miami to Bogota market (which is substantial), though perhaps the flight isn’t as convenient for those traveling between the Gulf region and Colombia, given the challenges with transiting the US. Flying Emirates first class between Miami and Bogota sure is a treat, though!
Bottom line
Qatar Airways intends to launch twice weekly flights to Bogota, Colombia, and Caracas, Venezuela. The plan is for the outbound flight to operate nonstop to Bogota, while the return flight will operate with a stop, via Caracas. That’s partly to serve local Caracas traffic, and also to refuel, given Bogota’s high altitude.
It’ll be interesting to see how this route performs, as it’s one of the more interesting ultra long haul routes we’ve seen launched by a Gulf carrier. Then again, with Turkish Airlines flying to Caracas up to twice daily, I imagine there will be demand for Qatar Airways as well.
What do you make of Qatar Airways adding Bogota and Caracas flights?
Mercy be upon the crew that gets tech timed-out in Caracas.
I wonder what the airline's contingency plan is?
The airport is quite far from the city, and there are a few hotels in the area, you definitely don't have to go into town (I'm actually told it's not as bad as maybe 5-7 years ago, but I am still not keen on going back). I don't think that the likes of UX and Iberia have had any crew safety issues there.
Hope this route has good availability w points. The GRU-DOH never seems to have any, as its the only SA gateway. I always have to reposition for my Qsuites anyway, will be nice to toss in a little Colombia detour on the way!
It's super interesting that they're launching this via CCS. When I flew from Stockholm to Caracas last year the Turkish flight out of Istanbul made a lot of sense schedule-wise, and prices were very competitive in business. I know a number of people in Venezuela (those who are left there who have the means to travel) who use the Turkish flight when heading out on holiday as it's seen as the most premium/best quality option...
It's super interesting that they're launching this via CCS. When I flew from Stockholm to Caracas last year the Turkish flight out of Istanbul made a lot of sense schedule-wise, and prices were very competitive in business. I know a number of people in Venezuela (those who are left there who have the means to travel) who use the Turkish flight when heading out on holiday as it's seen as the most premium/best quality option to Europe and it's a no-brainer for connections to Asia and Africa. Also interesting to note that on both my CCS flights with TK the business cabin had many Chinese passengers, from the looks of it both tourists and businesspeople. So yeah it seemed to me there was plenty of demand and Turkish was picking off all the highest yield customers. In theory QR is looking to poach some of that!
Does the 777-200LR have QSuites?
@ Izz -- Most 77Ls have Qsuites, but not all. See here:
https://onemileatatime.com/guides/qatar-airways-qsuites/
The airline still hasn't announced the flight schedule, it just says it starts early in summer 2025. I am still waiting when they are going to relieve the inaugural flight date. On top of that, the airline still hasn't announced what type of aircraft will be for that route. Will be an A350 or a Boeing 777?
The press release states the aircraft is a 777-200LR.
the cabin is a bit outdated for such a long flight isn’t it? i am currently looking for alternatives to LH since they do not provide F to northern South America any more
@ Michael MUC -- Most 777-200LRs have Qsuites.
The airline hasn't announced when are they are going to start Bogota/Caracas flights. It says in summer 2025. It also hasn't announced the flying time and the aircraft it is planning.
@ Ricardo Urdaneta -- Yep, I'll be sure to update this post once the schedule is published.
LATAM is in an interesting place, having investors from both Sky Team (Delta) and One World. (Qatar) Makes for interesting points accrual and redemption opportunities!