DirektornSE

I miss pre-covid when QR had 3 flights from Scandinavia. (ARN/OSL/CHP)
Now most are with Finnair and I love the A350 but the new business class seat is horrible for someone who do not want to sleep.

Do anyone know when they will fly A350-900/1000 again in Scandinavia? Or how long will this stupid Finnair deal last? I was hoping Q4 this year but no, no flights...

Jorma

There doesnt seem to be any dates, but the press release from August 2022 says "an agreement to establish a long-term strategic cooperation between Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen and Doha. ".
Unfortunately.

I would even take A320 HEL-DOH over this AY crap.

QatarA340

I love the AY flights to Doha! The J seats are private, modern, and spacious and much better than QR's A330s, certainly A320s, and 787-8 style seats. Yes, the meals are horrible, but its a good seat.

I hope this cooperation doesn't stop.

N1Rotate

I expect the partnership to last a long time unless Russian airspace is suddenly available to AY and they find more productive use for their aircraft. Reason being that QR only has a handful of wide body aircraft coming in the next 18 months and when the pace of deliveries increase in 2026 I presume getting rid of the older 777 and A330 would be a priority.

florin

I'm trying to look at this from QR perspective. One of the advantages of using AY for these routes is flexibility of using QR planes (and crews) for other routes, and like N1Rotate pointed out, this is now important. The demand for flights is still very high; revenge travel is still a thing. My uneducated guess is that the arrangement continues for at least another year.
I don't know what this means for the QR bottom line (i.e. if AY operating the flights means is more, or maybe less lucrative), but I'm sure they have calculate the numbers here and the opportunity cost.

QatarA340

It seems to be working, as Finnair recorded profit for this year in every quarter. With a lot of routes not available due to Russian airspace closure, it is remarkable that it can report profits. I expect this to continue for another year at the very least.

A Strong Quarter: Finnair Reports Q3 Financial Results (simpleflying.com)

QatarA340

I wonder when the rest of the A350s would start to arrive? I know the 321neos would commence from 2026.

DirektornSE

Before COVID QR had 3 daily flights from Stockholm (And I think OSL and CPH) - most if not all was A350-900 or A350-1000 (All A350-1000 was QSuite)
This was great as, depending on your destination I could take an early flight (8AM) a mid day fight (~14) or the late 9.15PM flight and never had any long transits in DOH.
This was also great as I could work a whole day and just take the late flight.

Now there are two flights from ARN. 08.10 with is a QR flight, and a 15.10 something AY flight.
I'm not a huge fan of AY so I have to take the QR flight meaning every time I fly QR I need to go up at 5AM..
AY would have worked if it was not for the new BC seats, I just hate them. I'm not a big fan of the food either.

But the biggest stopper for me is no access to Al Safwa on my return trip as AY code sharing is not an QR flight and as such Platinum members won't have access (unless I was in F on the previous flight)
Yes I fly quite often and I have currently swifted to Emirates (Where you can fly First class even from ARN) - on top of Quatar Platinum I'm as well Emirates Gold

Schwann

A 2nd daily flight started at Oslo. It doesn't run every day but a step in the right direction - but both daily flights are B787s.

nomadabroad

Indeed, they are focussing more on ramping up Asian destinations, thanks to the AY, IB and BA JV arrangements which enabled QR to restart flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Osaka, HND, etc.

DirektornSE

Interesting how one or two missing flights will allow QR to ramp up their entire Asia destinations...

florin

I don't think it's just 1 or 2 flights; if you add AY and IB it's likely more than that. Not all destinations are daily, so it's possible to imagine that one daily flight can be replaced by 2 destinations, one 3 and one 4 times/week.

N1Rotate

Should start later in 2025.

Finnair frees up 3 planes, MH/AT/IB free up one each. QR dropping DOH-PHL frees up two planes. You also have 4 WY A330s taking over routes like DOH-TUN. That is already 10+ planes in addition to the 9 second hand 777s with non-standard configuration.

CPH-Flyer

Copenhagen was mainly 787-8 pre pandemic, though once the blockade kicked in it changed to majority 777-300ER, mostly due to cargo needs. I have flown a lot on Copenhagen with Qatar, and I don't think I have ever had a Q Suites flight. The closest was a 787-9 once or twice.

As the AY operated flight is the one that connects well with the Narita flights, I have skipped flying QR to Copenhagen. Which I have also told them. I really don't want to pay for QR service and get Finnair service.

oliver2002

As long as QR is short on aircraft they will use any available option to keep operations going. AY is looking to utilize its fleet as much as it can. If that means they feed QR in DOH from the nordics, they will do that.