Doha to Dubai had 39 departures on this day in 2017

Following the end of the Qatar blockade, Riyadh has resumed and Jeddah and Dammam will later this week.  The return of Dubai International will be crucial, with this the top market for Doha and vice-versa.

On this day (12 January) in 2017, Doha to Dubai had 39 departures.  33 were to Dubai International, while six were to Al Maktoum.

Doha to the UAE as a whole had 59 departures: the above, plus 13 to Abu Dhabi, five to Sharjah, and two to Ras Al Khaimah.

Read more: End of Qatar blockade – 20 routes and 1,400+ weekly flights could return.

Saudia and Qatar Airways resumed Doha – Riyadh on 11 January.  Jeddah is coming on 14 and 15 January with Saudia and Qatar Airways respectively, while Dammam will restart on 16 January.

There is currently no sign of other destinations returning, but they will in due course.  And Dubai will be crucial.

Five routes operated between Doha and the UAE on 12 January 2017 with 59 departures on that day. Source: OAG Mapper.

Doha to Dubai International had 33 departures on this day

On 12 January, Dubai International was by far Doha’s number-one non-stop market out of the 139 in its network, OAG data shows. It had more than twice as many departures as number-two, Bahrain.

Doha, meanwhile, was Dubai’s top route out of 183.  It had 10 more daily departures than second-place Kuwait.

Doha – Dubai International is a highly interesting market because of the breath of aircraft used, its high frequency, its short length (just 378 kilometres), and because many are surprised that it could sustain such service. 

Qatar Airways had 17 of these 39 departures – effectively an hourly service – alongside nine with Emirates and seven with flydubai.

Widebodies operated 18 of the 33, with nine types/models used, from B787-8s to A340-600s and the A380. 

In full-month January 2017, an estimated 390,000 round-trip passengers flew between Doha and Dubai International, booking data from OAG Traffic Analyser indicates.  Of these, approximately 54% – 211,000 – were point-to-point; that is P2P PDEW of over 3,403.