Qatar Airways has confirmed that it will cease flying to Philadelphia. While expected, it comes as partner American Airlines adds Philadelphia-Doha. It resulted from its exit from New York JFK-Doha, which meant that Qatar Airways grew JFK flights to triple daily.

Qatar Airways to end Philadelphia

It is unclear precisely when the Qatar flag carrier will end its Philly service. Flights are available until October 29th, the last day of the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere. However, AeroRoutes says it will end on the 27th. Regardless, it seems American will take over on October 30th as part of its winter schedule switchover.

Having served the Pennsylvania hub since April 2014, Qatar Airways presently uses the Boeing 777-300ER on the 6,797-mile (10,993 km) route. Operating daily, the planned winter schedule was to be as follows, with all times local.

• Doha to Philadelphia: QR727, 07:55-14:55 (15h 0m block time)
• Philadelphia to Doha: QR728, 20:35-16:55+1 (12h 20m)

Photo: Steve Worner | Shutterstock.

Timings are nearly the same with American

Of course, Philadelphia will remain part of Qatar Airways' network, just served by American instead. As such, the schedule is pretty similar to ensure two-way connectivity to other flights over their Doha and Philadelphia hubs.

Using the lower-capacity 787-9, which will help improve winter fares, loads, and performance, AA120 will leave Philly at 20:55 and arrive at 17:30 the next day (12h 35m block). After staying overnight in the Middle East for connectivity reasons, AA121 will depart at 08:55 and return at 15:25 (14h 30m).

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Where do passengers go?

According to US DOT T-100 data, Qatar Airways carried approximately 91,000 Philadelphia passengers between January and May 2023, with an average seat load factor of 85%. It was a time when the 777-300ER, A350-900, and A350-1000 were all used to varying degrees. While only one part of the performance pie, SLF rose to over 91% in May.

Entirely predictably, the point-to-point demand (those who only traveled between the two cities) was tiny. Booking data suggests there were barely 4,000 roundtrip passengers, 27 daily – nothing for such a long-haul route. Only about 4% of the route's passengers were P2P.

Photo: Suparat Chairatprasert I Shutterstock.

Some 5% of passengers began in Doha and connected to American's flights in Philadelphia, while 29% transited in both Doha and Philadelphia. More passengers flew Amritsar-Doha-Philadelphia-Toronto than anywhere else.

The remaining 62% of passengers connected in Doha, mainly to India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and the UAE. The top 10 origins and destinations are shown on the following map, with Philadelphia-Hyderabad as the most popular segment.

Image: GCMap.

Doha to the US this winter

Given the changes in Philadelphia, Doha is expected to have 113 departing passenger flights to the US each week this winter (226 roundtrips) with 12 destinations served non-stop:

What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comments.

Sources of information: OAG, AeroRoutes, Google Flights, US DOT T-100, booking data.