Qatar Airways is the world’s 14th-largest airline for international flights. Having a large passenger fleet of 241 aircraft and no domestic market are obviously critical. When only long-haul services are considered, the oneworld member ranks fourth globally, influenced by 209 widebodies.

Recently, Qatar Airways’ CEO stated that the fallout from the ongoing war in Iran has been the single-worst crisis in the airline’s history. He disclosed that it was even more significant than the COVID-19 pandemic, which might seem like a distant memory nowadays despite the devasation that it wreaked. Against this backdrop, it is worth examining the long-haul markets that Qatar Airways has ended.

Qatar Airways Has Ended Passenger Flights To 20 Long-Haul Destinations

Credit: Cardiff International Airport

In the past ten years, Qatar Airways has stopped long-haul passenger service to 20 destinations globally. This is based on exploring the carrier’s schedule changes using Cirium Diio. While retrospective, it is very common in aviation and other industries to see how things have changed. After all, better understanding the past may enable better performance in the present and future.

As usual, some caveats apply, including having a minimum of ten departures and having no flights planned through next summer (which is as far as schedules currently go). Where the airline has simply switched airports serving the same city, the airport that no longer sees its jets is excluded. This rules out five places: Beijing Capital (now flies to Daxiing), Berlin Tegel (closed; flies to Brandenburg), Chengdu Shuangliu (now serves Tianfu), Luanda Quatro de Fevereiro (now flies to the new facility), and Phnom Penh International (now serves the new airport).

All these caveats, and more, leave the following 20 airports. Obviously, this does not reflect all the carrier’s canceled destinations. Go further back and many more would join the list. This is, of course, the same for all such analysis, whether for American Airlines, Air Canada, United Airlines, or otherwise.

Qatar Airways Flew To Wales?!

Yes it did, but not for long. Flights to Cardiff International Airport (CWL) were available between May 2018 and March 2020. At times, a daily offering was available, with all but one service on the Boeing 787-8. The exception was the inauguration day, when the Airbus A350-900 was used instead. The video above commemorated the launch.

Qatar Airways would not have considered CWL without substantial funding. In total, the UK Civil Aviation Authority shows that 91,000 passengers flew to/from Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) in 2019. As that’s just a number, it says little in itself. When added to seats for sale, the load factor was an abysmal 59%. Of course, the funding was designed, in part, to attract the carrier in the first place and to help balance performance by reducing exposure and risk. Naturally, virtually everyone connected to another flight in DOH.

Qatar Airways To Myanmar

Credit: N509FZ | Flickr

Yangon is the capital of Myanmar, which is a relatively undiscussed country in Southeast Asia. Qatar Airways has a reasonably long history of flying there, and it benefited from being the only Gulf carrier to do so. Originally, flights launched in 2004 and existed until 2008, when both the Airbus A319 (really) and Airbus A300 were deployed. They stopped due to the country’s deterioration, economic problems, and international sanctions.

Service returned in December 2016, initially on the Airbus A330-200 (shown above). The final departure was in March 2020 on the 110-seat A319. Over half of the eliminated destinations mentioned in the table had their final service in that fateful year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For most of the time, flights to/from Myanmar operated on a standalone so-called terminator basis. They were not extended elsewhere. However, for a while in 2018, the service was tagged with Chiang Mai or U-Tapao (Pattaya). The A319 was used on those routes to Thailand via Yangon.