Spanish Flag Carrier Iberia Joins the Rush For Doha With a New Daily Service Starting December 11

Spanish flag carrier Iberia is launching a new non-stop flight between its Madrid hub and Doha from December 11, 2023. The new service will also see Iberia join an existing joint business venture between Qatar Airways and British Airways in which the airlines coordinate flights to and from the Persian Gulf hub.

The new flight will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 with the daylight service arriving in Qatar at around 5:35 pm in time for a bank of departures from Doha to destinations such as the Maldives and Seychelles, Singapore and Thailand.

The return flight will arrive in Madrid at around 7:00 am, allowing easy connections onto intra-European short-haul flights, as well as Iberia’s transatlantic and Latin American services.

Iberia’s decision to launch flights to Doha came less than a week after Japan Airlines also announced its intention to fly direct between Tokyo and Qatar next Summer.

Both airlines are members of the Oneworld alliance, and Qatar Airways is attempting to turn its Doha home into a major hub for the airline alliance. Other oneworld carriers already serving Doha include American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Royal Jordanian, SriLankan Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.

One of the biggest advantages for Qatar Airways of this strategy is that it is able to quickly increase capacity and compete against its regional rivals like Emirates without acquiring more aircraft.

Qatar Airways is also a major shareholder in the parent company that owns both British Airways and Iberia, which may go some way to explain why Iberia has joined the rush for Doha.

The joint business venture between British Airways and Qatar Airways encompassed 42 countries, and this will now be expanded to 62 countries, with Iberia joining the partnership.

Along with Iberia’s once-daily service to Doha, Qatar Airways will continue to operate a double daily service between its hub and the Spanish capital.