While most of Qatar Airways' 164 passenger destinations from its Doha hub in September are served non-stop, several are served on a one-stop basis. This enables less demanded places to join its network, although aircraft availability and the closeness of airports also may be factors. One-stops often permit more flights than might otherwise be feasible, while improving loads, connectivity, and competitiveness. However, as they have higher costs and complexity, the eventual hope usually is to de-link them.

Qatar Airways one-stops: September

The carrier's one-stop services are shown on the following map and summarized in the table. Notice two different types are mentioned in the table. I have put 'and vice-versa' for eight of the 11 routings. These are so-called 'terminator' services, where the operating aircraft simply returns the reverse way. They therefore have four flights/sectors as part of a roundtrip operation.

(September one-stops.) Image: GCMap.

Routings where vice-versa is not stated are 'triangular'. As the name suggests, these have three (rather than four) sectors, reducing costs where this is geographically and commercially suitable. Notice Qatar Airways' weekly Doha-Cebu-Davao-Doha triangular operation. It really does currently serve Davao just once a week, although it doubles in November.

Most are terminator routings

For example, the Boeing 777-300ER assigned to operate Doha-Melbourne-Adelaide on a particular day would then fly Adelaide-Melbourne-Doha. This domestic tag-on, which obviously cannot carry passengers because of so-called 'cabotage', exists simply as a way for Qatar Airways to increase flights to coveted Melbourne.

Under the Qatar-Australia air service agreement, double daily Melbourne flights are only allowed by serving a secondary Australian city too, hence the Adelaide one-stop.

Photo: Steve Worner | Shutterstock.

The aircraft leaves Doha at 03:05 and arrives in Victoria at 23:30 the same day. Highly unusually, it remains overnight in Melbourne, leaving for Adelaide at 05:35. It departs for Melbourne at 11:40, eventually returning to the Middle East at 22:50.

Of course, no passenger in their right mind would buy XXX-Doha-Melbourne-overnight-Adelaide. They would use the separate non-stop to/from the South Australia capital, which often appears cheaper too. The tag-on is, in effect, simply a tick-box exercise for more Melbourne service.

Why terminator services?

You might wonder why the 787-8 operating Doha-Lusaka-Harare does not simply return to Doha, creating a triangular routing. After all, this would reduce miles by 172 (277 km), saving fuel and time versus backtracking.

While there is more to it than this, returning to Lusaka before flying back to Qatar suggests that the Zambian capital is more valuable to the carrier than Harare, whether through fares, demand, or both. It may want to better serve such passengers better.

Photo: Kamilpetran I Shutterstock.

Importantly, Qatar Airways benefits from fifth freedom traffic rights on Lusaka-Harare-Lusaka in both directions (rather more critical than one, as per a triangular operation). As the aircraft is away from home for longer, it may also mean that it arrives back in the right arrival bank to maximize connections to the right destinations.

Have you flown any Qatar Airways one-stop services? If so, let us know where you went by commenting.

Sources of information: Cirium, Google Flights, Flightradar24.com.