MJust over five years since Virgin Australia scrapped its Boeing 777 flights to Los Angeles, the airline is ready to return to long-range flying in mid-2025 – and tickets could go on sale within weeks.

But this time those jets will be headed west to the Qatari capital of Doha rather than east to LAX, with aircraft and crew supplied by Qatar Airways, which also intends to take a 25% stake in Virgin.

It’s part of an ‘integrated alliance’ between the two carriers, which has received a tentative go-ahead from the Australian government’s competition watchdog.

Under the partnership, Virgin Australia will run daily flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to the Doha hub of Qatar Airways.

From there, passengers can transfer to Qatar’s network of more than 100 destinations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Virgin’s Australia-Doha flights

Virgin’s Sydney-Doha, Brisbane-Doha and Perth-Doha flights are slated to take off in June 2025, with Melbourne-Doha following in December 2025.

These Virgin flights will be in addition to Qatar Airways’ own flights and they’ll carry a native VA flight code, allowing Velocity members to earn a full-sized serving of points and status credits.

In its application lodged with Australia’s International Air Services Commission, Virgin Australia says these flights will take place on Qatar Airways’ Boeing 777-300ER jets.

These international Virgin Australia flights will still offer Qatar Airways’ renowned service.

Taken together with the existing Qatar Airways services, Sydney-Doha, Brisbane-Doha and Perth-Doha will each see two daily flights, up from the current one flight per day.

Melbourne-Doha will have three daily flights, up from the current two (one of which also flies to Adelaide).

For ease of comparison we’ve listed all of the Doha flights below, with the new VA flights alongside those of Qatar Airways.

Sydney to Doha

• VA1 will depart Sydney at 2.50pm, arriving into Doha at 10.50pm (Boeing 777)
• QR909 (VA6131) departs Sydney at 8.45pm, arriving into Doha at 4.55am (Airbus A380)

Doha to Sydney

• VA2 will depart Doha at 9.15am, arriving into Sydney at 6.15am (Boeing 777)
• QR908 (VA6130) departs Doha at 10.05pm, arriving into Sydney at 5.10pm (Airbus A380)

Brisbane to Doha

• VA15 will depart Brisbane at 3.10pm, arriving into Doha at 11pm (Boeing 777)
• QR899 (VA6133) departs Brisbane at 10.15pm, arriving into Doha at 6am (Boeing 777 with Qsuites)

Doha to Brisbane

• VA16 will depart Doha at 1.40am, arriving into Brisbane at 10.45pm (Boeing 777)
• QR898 (VA6132) departs Doha at 8.25pm, arriving into Brisbane at 5.30pm (Boeing 777 with Qsuites)

Perth to Doha

• VA21 will depart Perth at 3.20pm, arriving into Doha at 9.50pm (Boeing 777)
• QR901 (VA6129) departs Perth at 10.45pm, arriving into Doha at 5.20am (Airbus A380)

Doha to Perth

• VA22 will depart Doha at 7.50pm, arriving into Perth at 11.55am (Boeing 777)
• QR900 (VA6128) departs Doha at 2.45am, arriving into Perth at 6.45pm (Airbus A380)

Virgin has yet to file its proposed flight timings for the Melbourne-Doha route.

Tickets on sale soon

The airline notes that “to successfully commence services in June 2025” it needs to “commence marketing and selling tickets in December 2024.”

The launch timeframe ties neatly into the 2025 British and Irish Lions rugby tour – for which Qatar Airways is the official airline partner – which is expected to see over 40,000 spectators visiting Australia for nine games spread across late June to early August 2025.

Based on Virgin’s Reward Seat chart, a one-way business class seat from Sydney, Melbourne ot Brisbane to Doha (or back) will cost 95,500 Velocity Points; on the shorter Perth-Doha route, a one-way business class ticket comes in at 71,500 Velocity Points.

However, there’s a possibility that not all of these 777s will be fitted with Qatar Airways’ highly-regarded business class Qsuites.

Virgin Australia stated it “plans to operate the proposed services on Boeing 777-300ER aircraft configured with between 354 and 412 seats” (while also allowing that “the aircraft type and seat configuration may be changed for operational or commercial reasons”).

A 354-seat count is in line with the private Qsuite-equipped 777s, which have 42 Qsuites and 312 economy seats.

However, as an ET reader has pointed out and as confirmed by the reliable AeroLOPA website, Qatar flies two versions of the 412-seat Boeing 777-300ERs.

Both have 24 business class berths: however, one boasts the modern Qsuites while the other has the previous-gen business class.

While still being lie-flat, these are angled beds – also known as ‘sloping sleepers’ – arranged in a 2-2-2 layout, lacking both privacy and at-seat storage.

Some of the Australia-bound 777s may also sport free and very fast WiFi through the Starlink micro-satellite network.

The ACCC filing also appears to rule out some of Virgin’s own 777s, which Qatar Airways also counts among its fleet, from returning to Australia.

Qatar Airways flies three former VA 777s on a regular basis to destinations in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, along with hops around the Gulf, the Maldives and Africa.

Shaking up the skies…

The new Virgin flights may also provide an opportunity for Qatar Airways to revise its own aircraft roster, with the high-capacity A380 superjumbo proving less crucial to Sydney and Perth once a second daily 777 service is added.

Those additional Virgin flights will mean more competition between airlines, which should in turn translate into cheaper tickets overall – especially if Virgin kicks things off with a sharply-priced sale – or at the very least keep a lid on airfares.

The Virgin-Qatar alliance will notably challenge Qantas and Emirates, which between them carry almost a quarter of Australia’s international passengers, according to government statistics.

And before you ask: being on the QR codeshare of these Virgin Australia flights won’t provide entry into any Qantas lounge.

Oneworld lounge access is available only “when departing on any flight marketed and operated by any Oneworld member airline”, and these additional flights will officially be operated by Virgin Australia.

To that end, Virgin Australia will need to arrange its own lounge access at the international terminals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth for its business class passengers and loungeworthy Velocity frequent flyers – something the airline says it is currently working through.

However, a side effect of the VA/QR tie-up will see Etihad Airways end its long-standing partnership with Virgin Australia from June 1, 2025.

The proposal for Qatar Airways to take a 25% stake in Virgin Australia has yet to receive approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.