Qatar Airways is increasing flights to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) again, this time ramping up operations to a double daily frequency.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Qatar Airways flew to DFW with a 7x weekly frequency. At the beginning of 2021, Qatar Airways announced it would increase its Doha (DOH) to DFW route from 7x weekly to 10x weekly flights starting in March. Later in the summer, Qatar further increased the route to 12x weekly.
Now Qatar will increase DFW again, this time from 12x to 14x weekly (two daily) flights. The additional two weekly frequencies, operated with the 777-200LR, are scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays starting September 9, 2021:
- QR731 - Depart DOH at 1:10 AM arrive in DFW at 9:40 AM
- QR732 - Depart DFW at 2:10 PM arrive in DOH at 1:00 PM (next day)
This twice-daily DOH-DFW schedule is currently set to run through the end of October 2021. From there, DOH-DFW drops down to 10x weekly, however, this is highly subject to change.
With the addition of 7x weekly Boeing 777-200LR flights complementing the 7x weekly Airbus A350-1000, Qatar Airways will offer an additional 83.2% capacity to DFW compared to pre-COVID.
The aviation industry is still battling COVID-19. Travel restrictions remain in place in certain areas while they linger in others. Despite this, Qatar Airways will drastically increase DFW capacity and Turkish Airlines will inaugurate flights to DFW on September 24.
Qatar Airways' decision to ramp up DFW to double daily comes just two weeks after Turkish firmed up its Istanbul (IST) to DFW route. Pure demand between DFW and both Istanbul and Doha is minimal, so both carriers are primarily aiming to connect DFW residents with Central Asia, India, Africa, and other regions.
So, did Qatar increase DFW as a competitive response against Turkish? Who knows. However, Oneworld partner American Airlines has aggressively defended its Dallas/Fort Worth fortress hub. What better way to defend the hub against Turkish than to have its partner Qatar Airways bolster its Middle East to DFW route?
Thanks to American Airlines, Qatar Airways will be able to utilize connections on both ends of its DOH-DFW route, giving it the upper hand against Turkish Airlines, which only has connectivity through Istanbul and minimal United Airlines routes out of DFW.
Up until March 2018, DFW Airport had 21 weekly flights to the Middle East, evenly split among Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad. That month, Etihad left, blaming American Airlines for terminating their codeshare partnership. After March 2018, DFW maintained 14 weekly flights to the Middle East.
In late 2014, Emirates upgauged its Dubai to Dallas/Fort Worth service from the 777-300ER to the Airbus A380. This lasted around a year and a half as Emirates later reverted to the 777-300ER, likely due to both Etihad and Qatar commencing their DFW flights around the same time.
With Turkish Airlines entering DFW and Qatar Airways nearly doubling DFW capacity compared pre-COVID levels, and the reality that this pandemic has not dissipated, can DFW Airport handle this new capacity? We'll find out.
Note: As always, this information is subject to change. Qatar/DFW have not provided an official announcement. This is based on Qatar's updated booking schedule that went into effect today.
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