In June 2016, Qatar Airways first announced their plan to begin flying between Doha and Las Vegas, which caught a lot of people (including me) off guard.
At the time, Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ CEO, announced that the airline would offer daily Boeing 777-300ER service between the two cities as of January 2017. We didn’t hear anything else about the new route for a while, and then this past November Qatar Airways “announced” eight new routes, and Doha to Las Vegas was among them. Qatar Airways is known for not being the most credible airline out there, as they again “announced” the route without an actual start date.
In January Qatar Airways finally confirmed that they’d launch this route, though only 4x weekly using a Boeing 777-200LR, and only as of January 8, 2018. The route is a year later than originally announced, 4x weekly rather than daily, and on a 777-200 rather than a 777-300… minor details. 😉
Well, it looks like even that timeline was optimistic, as Qatar Airways has just delayed their Las Vegas launch by several months. As noted by routesonline.com, Qatar Airways will begin flying between Doha and Las Vegas as of June 1, 2018.
My guess is that even the updated timeline is highly optimistic. The route seemed like a stretch to begin with, not even taking into account the recent introduction of the electronics ban for flights from the Middle East to the United States, which has also impacted demand for travel on the Gulf carriers.
As I’ve said every time I’ve written about this supposed new route, I’ll be curious to see if/when this route gets off the ground. The June launch certainly isn’t a sure bet, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the route scrapped altogether.
Just over a month ago Qatar Airways announced their intentions to also launch flights between Doha and San Francisco in 2018, though no exact dates were given. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or both of these routes scrapped.
What do you guys think — will Qatar Airways actually launch flights between Doha and Las Vegas anytime soon?
QATAR AIRWAYS IS REQUESTED TO KINDLY START FLYING TO LAS VEGAS , NEVADA EVERY DAY BECAUSE OVER 10000 PEOPLE FLY DAILY TO VARIOUS AIRPORTS ALL OVER USA TO TAKE INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS ALL OVER WORLD . LAS VEGAS , NEVADA IS A TOURIST PLACE , PEOPLE COME TO LAS VEGAS , NEVADA FROM ALL OVER WORLD .
QATAR AIRWAYS IS REQUESTED TO KINDLY START FLYING TO LAS VEGAS DIRECT FROM DOHA . LAS VEGAS HAS BEEN WAITING FOR QATAR AIRWAYS FOR VERY LONG TIME . KLM STARTED FLYING TO LAS VEGAS DIRECT FROM AMSTERDAM IS ALWAYS FULL . ALL INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS ARE FULL CAPACITY EVERY DAY .
QATAR WILL FLY TO LAS VEGAS IN 2018 . YOU COULD BUY TICKETS ON THEIR WEB SITE ALSO . THEY WOULD NOT SELLING TICKETS FROM LAS VEGAS TO DOHA DIRECT FLIGHT AND BEYOND . THIS FLIGHT WILL BE VERY GOOD FOR LAS VEGAS BECAUSE OF VERY LIMITED INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT COME TO LAS VEGAS . THIS FLIGHT WILL BE BOOKED SOLID YEAR AROUND BECAUSE EMIRATES , ETIHAD DOES NOT FLY TO LAS VEGAS .
Foreign visitors to the USA are down 16% thanks to Trump -- it would make no sense for Qatar to launch a new service to a leisure destination given the slump. Add the laptop ban that keeps business customers away, and you have a perfect storm. If you want to blame someone, look to Washington.
Incidentally, British Airways just reduced summer capacity to San Francisco and San Diego, summer tourist destinations, again due to the Trump slump.
I think QR makes these random announcements to see if anyone else takes the bait! But in all honesty, QR already flies to some US destinations that no other middle eastern carrier operates to, direct - Atlanta and Philadelphia being 2 examples.
So who knows!?
PS - 777-200, really? Eww.
Which are the planes with the great business class, and which are blessed great ?
Thanks for th update!
What's the difference in capacity between the 77L and their A350/787? Maybe they are waiting for more of the new planes, for lower capacity/higher fuel efficiency.
Wouldn't the existing electronics ban affect these flights? If so, perhaps management doesn't want to launch these routes because they might fail.
I hope they do it. I am looking forward to an empty cabin. Two seats per business class passenger on the 777-200LR. Yes!
Wait... Isn't it 2018?
@ Jason @ Kyler -- Typo on my part, sorry. Thanks for the correction.
QR738 LAS1555 – 0720+1DOH 77L x246
0720+1 arrival at DOH doesn't make sense.
Compare LAX-DOH:
QR740 LAX1555 - 1740+1DOH
@ GolfPapa -- I assume it's a typo and they mean 7:20PM and not 7:20AM. It makes sense that Las Vegas would be 20 minutes shorter than Los Angeles.
Do you mean June 1, 2018? You wrote june 1, 2017