Qatar Airways Phuket changes

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    IstanbulWarrior
    Participant

    I just tried to book a flight from Istanbul-Phuket via Doha and noticed that their Phuket service is now non-stop as opposed to being via KUL. This is good news. However, QR used to have alternating early early-AM and midnight departures/arrivals to and from Doha, now they only have an early-AM departure and a late-PM arrival which no longer allows seamless transfers to many European destinations: Istanbul, Geneva, Venice to name a few. Any reason why they would do this, and with no announcements? Even airlineroute.net hasn’t caught on!


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    IstanbulWarrior – You did not say when you planned to travel but I would imagine it will be after the summer/winter timetable change.

    Airlines amend their schedules for marketing and fleet utilisation reasons at least twice a year, at the end of March and at the the end of October.

    It means that connection possibilities may vary following the timetable switch.


    IstanbulWarrior
    Participant

    It is for November, so indeed after the end-October schedule changes.


    cityprofessional
    Participant

    Phuket is slot constrained during the daytime, so it’s probably not their choice of flight timings. Basically they’ve either got to use existing slots, or fly there in the middle of the night


    IstanbulWarrior
    Participant

    Cityprofessional, QR managed to secure quite a premium slot at HKT. However it’s the dep/arr times in DOH that are not ideal.


    first_class_please
    Participant

    It was always a tag to KL, so hence the alternating times depending on the day.

    Now its non stop I guess you have to factor a number of points, same landing time daily, Doha take of slot and probably the most important, the aircraft availability.

    Now with a 7am departure from Doha it connects to the majority of European overnight flights, quite possibly using one of these aircraft to continue the onward HKT flight.

    Same on the return, a 2250 arrival allows for the bank of 1 – 2 am departures.

    It appears Istanbul, Geneva and Venice must not provide the onward bookings that London, Manchester, Paris, Frankfurt provide.


    Str8Talking
    Participant

    I imagine without the KL tag, they might also struggle to fill two planes a day? Plus, they codeshare on the BKK-HKT route with Bangkok Airways.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    For those who are interested, here are the new timings between Doha and Phuket:

    http://airlineroute.net/2014/09/02/qr-hkt-w14/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social140902

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