Qatar Airways has just announced plans to add service to another destination in the Americas, and it’s a long overdue route…
Qatar Airways will fly to Toronto as of December 2024
As of December 11, 2024, Qatar Airways will add a new 3x weekly service between Doha (DOH) and Toronto (YYZ). The route will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, with the following schedule:
QR767 Doha to Toronto departing 9:50AM arriving 3:55PM
QR768 Toronto to Doha departing 8:00PM arriving 4:30PM (+1 day)
The 6,772-mile flight is blocked at 14hr5min westbound and 12hr30min eastbound. Qatar Airways intends to use a Boeing 777-300ER for the route, featuring 354 seats, comprised of 42 business class seats and 312 economy class seats.
Toronto is Qatar Airways’ 14th destination in the Americas, and only the carrier’s second route to Canada, complementing existing daily service to Montreal (YUL). The Toronto area of course has an incredibly international population, so this new route will provide one-stop service to all kinds of destinations in the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, Africa, and more.
Qatar Airways is the last of the “big three” Gulf carriers to fly to Toronto, as the airport is also served by Emirates out of Dubai (DXB) and Etihad out of Abu Dhabi (AUH).
Why it took Qatar Airways so long to launch this route
Qatar Airways is an incredibly global airline, so many people may be surprised that the oneworld airline hasn’t flown to Toronto regularly up until this point, given what a major market it is. The reason is because Canada’s government has historically taken a protectionist attitude when it comes to allowing foreign airlines to add service to the country.
Canada and Qatar have a bilateral aviation agreement, which stipulates how many weekly frequencies airlines from a particular country can fly to the other country. Up until recently, Qatar Airways was limited to operating seven weekly flights to Canada, and the airline elected to fly to Montreal rather than Toronto.
However, clearly the bilateral agreement has just been expanded, or else this new route wouldn’t be possible. I can’t find anything obvious online about this being expanded, but Qatar’s Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, recently met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for the two countries to have closer ties. I have to imagine that this was part of that.
It’s interesting to look at how air service between Canada and the Middle East has evolved:
- In 2020, Air Canada launched a route between Toronto and Doha, and as part of this, the airlines introduced a codeshare agreement
- In late 2022, Air Canada and Emirates announced a partnership, replacing the previous agreement with Qatar Airways; with this, Air Canada also cut its route between Toronto and Doha, instead expanding service to Dubai
In this case, Qatar Airways is going at it alone, with the focus clearly being on serving the local Toronto market. However, who knows, maybe we’ll see Qatar Airways partner with another Canadian carrier, like Porter, for connectivity.
Bottom line
As of December 2024, Qatar Airways is launching a new 3x weekly flight between Doha and Toronto, using a Boeing 777. This complements the carrier’s existing daily service to Montreal. Service to Canada is based on bilateral agreements, so clearly the airline now has the rights to add another three flights to Canada.
What do you make of Qatar Airways adding Toronto flights?
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