What comes to mind when you think of Qatar Airways? Perhaps the QSuite, state funding, or a sea of widebodies. What probably does not immediately spring forth is the carrier’s least-served routes. It is similar for most airlines. Perhaps it is because it’s less ‘sexy,’ global-reaching, or involves less shiny aircraft. In Qatar Airways’ case, most such services are on the ubiquitous and soon-to-be-retired A320ceo, which is hardly earth-shattering.

Qatar Airways’ least-served routes

To get the results, I examined all passenger flights, both non-stop and one-stop, between August and December using OAG data. To be counted, destinations from Doha needed to have no more than 60 departures in the five months.

Photo: Qatar Airways

The 11 results are summarized below. For some routes, it meant summer-seasonal services; for others, year-round but low frequency. One route, the only entry to see widebodies, ends soon. Note that some routes sometimes have similar weekly frequencies but do not make it due to exceeding 60 departures in total.

Qatar Airways to Toulouse

On July 18, 2023, the oneworld member began its fourth French route: Doha to Toulouse. It joined the long-served Paris CDG, along with Nice and Lyon. Flights to Lyon had only started 15 days earlier.

Photo: Toulouse–Blagnac Airport

Toulouse’s end was revealed in July 2024. For now, Qatar Airways continues to serve the city three times weekly. QR47 leaves Qatar at 08:40 and arrives at 14:40 local time, while QR48 departs at 16:25 and returns at 23:55. While the schedule maximizes two-way connectivity over its Doha hub, the route performed insufficiently to continue.

All routes take time to develop, especially long-haul, and not all will or are expected to succeed. Toulouse was not doing well enough to continue. A lack of premium travel, insufficient loads overall, and too large equipment were contributory factors. While it started on the 260-seat A330-200, more than half of flights have been on the larger 305-seat A330-300. This reduced loads and yields further and did not help financial performance or development.

Photo: Toulouse–Blagnac Airport

Very few Qatar Airways’ European routes use the aging A330, and Lyon flights – which started at a similar time as Toulouse – have been exclusively on the lower-capacity Boeing 787-8.

While some may conclude that the Airbus connection drove the A330 to be used for flights to Toulouse, it was from a lack of alternative aircraft. Indeed, the airline had said it would switch to the A350-900 when possible. Given the route ends soon, that won’t happen now. Perhaps Toulouse, and places like it, might be more suited to the A321LR when that equipment arrives.