Doha To Dubai: The World’s Most Exciting Route?

Doha to Dubai is arguably one of the world’s most exciting routes – or at least was before the blockade started. While a very short route, it had 33 daily departures with nine types of widebody used – including the A380. And the glory days of the route will no doubt return.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Doha to Dubai International doesn’t sound an exciting route. If you’re looking at flights now, you’d be correct. There are just three departures on Sunday, May 9th. Two are with Qatar Airways and one with flydubai – with Qatar Airways using both the B777-300ER and B777-200LR on the 235-mile service.

This gives a suggestion of the former glory of the route which had more than 30 departures a day, many by widebodies – including the A380. That was before the blockade was imposed. It was – and will be once again – a highly interesting route because of:

• The number of aircraft types used
• Big use of widebodies
• High frequency
• Short length (45 to 50 minute flight time)
• Because many are surprised that it could sustain such service

Blockade

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar in June 2017. This resulted in a blockade that severed links – including air service – between Qatar and those countries. This meant flights to/from Doha often required circuitous detours that significantly added block times, fuel burn, and ultimately competitiveness.

The blockade ended nearly three years later in January 2021, after which flights have slowly started to return – except to Bahrain.

Because of the pandemic, flights are still nowhere near the level they were previously. In 2016, almost 71,000 operated between Doha and these four countries, analyzing OAG data indicates. This year, it’s barely 11,000, a drop of 85%. But they will return, and Dubai will once again be top.

Nine widebody types to Dubai International

On the randomly chosen day of January 5th, 2017, there were some 59 daily departures – and almost 8,000 one-way seats – between Doha and the UAE. Some five airports were served: Abu Dhabi; Dubai International; Dubai Al Maktoum; Ras al Khaimah; and Sharjah.

With 33 departures that day to Dubai International with Emirates, flydubai, and Qatar Airways, this route was all-important. Widebodies had just over half of the flights spread across nine types, including the A380 with Emirates and the A340-600 with Qatar Airways, as follows. The A340-600 was retired in 2019.

1. B777-300ER: six departures with Emirates and Qatar Airways
2. B777-200LR: three; Emirates
3. A330-300: two; Qatar Airways
4. A330-200: one; Qatar Airways
5. A340-600 one; Qatar Airways
6. A350-900: one; Qatar Airways
7. A380: one; Emirates
8. B777-300 (non-ER): one; Emirates
9. B787-8: one; Qatar Airways

Why such a popular route?

Dubai has always been very popular for Qataris and residents in the country, with Hotelier Middle East saying that “before the rift, Qatari overnight visitors formed a key part of Dubai’s tourism industry”.

In full-month January 2017, an estimated 390,000 round-trip passengers flew between Doha and Dubai International, booking data from OAG Traffic Analyzer indicates. Of these, approximately 211,000 passengers – 54% – were point-to-point. This means Doha-Dubai saw over 3,400 P2P passengers daily each way. The rest were in transit.

33 departures; spot the A319s

On this January 2017 day, Dubai International was by far Doha’s number-one non-stop route out of the 139 in its network, OAG data shows. It had more than twice as many departures as number-two, Bahrain. Meanwhile, Doha was also Dubai’s top route too, this time out of 186.

Qatar Airways had 17 of these 33 departures, as shown below, with eight types used, including the A320 on seven flights and the A319 on two. Can you spot the A319s? With so many different aircraft used, Doha to Dubai is probably the best example of right-sizing aircraft to demand.

Did you fly between Doha and Dubai? If so, what aircraft were you on? Comment below!