Qatar Airways has passenger flights to five UK airports: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Heathrow, and Manchester. (There’s no indication that Cardiff will return.) When fellow oneworld member and close partner British Airways is included, they plan up to 12 daily London flights. That is a record for winter but not overall.

Qatar Airways at Heathrow

As reported in mid-August, Qatar Airways acquired an additional slot pair at the coveted Heathrow, renowned for its highly congested, expensive, but higher-yielding nature. It was obtained from Romanian flag carrier TAROM, which will leave Heathrow on October 26, the last day of the northern aviation summer based on IATA slot seasons.

On October 27, day one of the northern aviation winter season 2024/2025, Qatar Airways will commence its eighth daily Doha-Heathrow service. It’ll arrive at 14:05 and depart at 15:30 on the Boeing 777-300ER. Despite the high frequency, it is not a record for the carrier.

Photo: Fasttailwind | Shutterstock

Examining Qatar Airways’ schedule using Cirium data shows that it has had eight daily Heathrow flights, primarily on Saturdays, since April 2023. While eight daily flights were already planned on Saturdays this winter, the airline will now serve Heathrow with that many flights four days a week.

Qatar Airways will increase Heathrow flights to nine daily on winter Saturdays, up from the previously planned eight. It’s slightly easier to obtain Saturday slots. Scheduled and bookable, nine daily departures are available from November 2 and are currently planned throughout 2025.

Photo: Steve Worner | Shutterstock

Up to 12 daily London flights

Given Qatar Airways and BA’s close collaboration, the London-Doha service—around 85% of passengers connect beyond Doha—should be considered in combination. Doing so indicates up to 12 daily London flights this winter. While that’s a record for the season, it is not a record overall: the pair has 12 daily flights on 24 dates between April and August 2024.

Qatar Airways and British Airways will collectively have up to 11 daily Heathrow flights—a frequency never offered before. This helps them compete more effectively with Emirates, although that carrier’s higher capacity equipment, mainly because of the A380, means it wins the seats for sale and passenger volume race. However, despite serving Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted, Emirates has slightly fewer London flights than Qatar Airways and BA to Doha.

The duo’s Heathrow growth is at the expense of Gatwick. BA ended its Doha service and doubled its Heathrow offering, while Qatar Airways was triple daily at Gatwick until early 2020. The pair’s winter 2024/2025 offering is as follows:

A day-by-day breakdown

When the two carriers’ London-Doha operations are combined, their winter flights are as follows. Notice Wednesday has ‘only’ 10 departures when Qatar Airways has seven flights from Heathrow.