Qatar Airways is having a busy 2026. The Doha-based carrier has rolled out eight new or revived destinations across five regions, all funnelling through its Hamad International Airport hub — and a couple of them open up corners of the world that are otherwise awkward to reach.
Three brand-new routes launched this year. Hail in Saudi Arabia joined in January with three weekly Airbus A320 flights, part of the airline's early 2026 schedule. Port Sudan followed in July, also three times weekly on the A320, linking Sudan's coastal city to Doha. In September, Alexandria — Egypt's second city — came online twice a week, with daily service expected from July 2027.
The returning routes will please long-haul flyers. Philadelphia came back in August with daily Airbus A350-900 flights, restoring the Doha–Pennsylvania link previously run by American Airlines. Helsinki and Tokyo Haneda both resumed on 15 July with four weekly flights each, going daily from 1 August. Helsinki is served by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, while Haneda's return complements the airline's existing Tokyo Narita service — handy if you want a choice of airports in the Japanese capital, or a better-positioned gateway into the city itself.
The most intriguing piece arrives in November: Bogotá and Caracas. Qatar Airways will connect both South American capitals via a twice-weekly triangular routing flown with a Boeing 777-200LR. That's a rare direct option between the Andean and Caribbean coasts of South America and the Middle East and Asia — currently a slog of connections through Europe or the US.
Scale matters here too. The airline is targeting more than 170 destinations in the 2026–2027 winter season, with nearly 1,800 weekly flights by December. For travellers, that means more one-stop options via Doha to places where direct flights are scarce — sub-Saharan Africa, secondary Saudi cities, and now northern South America.
If your plans involve any of these destinations, it's worth checking whether the Doha routing beats your usual European or Gulf connection on price and total travel time, especially on the newer South American and Sudan routes where competition is thin.
