Qatar Airways has switched jumping off airports for their rather neat fifth freedom flights to Auckland. Throughout the pandemic, the Doha-based airline had operated a Doha – Brisbane – Auckland service, but recently Qatar ditched the Brisbane stopover in favor of Adelaide, in the process re-establishing a direct Adelaide – Auckland air link and opening up a very cruisy way to fly between Australia and New Zealand.
Qatar’s fifth freedom flight switch to Adelaide
Three times a week, QR914 pushes back from Doha (DOH) at 21:25 for the 13 hour overnight trek down to Adelaide (ADL), landing there at 18:00 the following day. After 90 minutes on the ground in the South Australian capital, QR914 departs at 19:30 and continues onto Auckland (AKL), arriving there at 01:55 the next morning.
The westbound flights now leave Auckland thrice-weekly at 18:00, allowing for a civilized 20:15 arrival into Adelaide after four hours and 45 minutes in the air. After a two-hour and five-minute stopover, QR915 takes off to Doha at 22:20, landing there at 04:30 the next day. While these schedules will soon change, frequencies are sticking to thrice weekly for the next few months.
Qatar Airways now flies to Auckland three times a week via Adelaide using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Photo: Qatar Airways
It’s not bad news for Brisbane (BNE). They are retaining their Qatar Airways service. In fact, Brisbane is now upgraded from six flights a week to daily Qatar Airways flights. And Qatar Airways never actually sold standalone tickets to fly between Brisbane and Auckland – you had to be going to or coming from Doha or points beyond to access the flight.
Normally, Taipei-based China Airlines flies the fifth freedom route between BNE and AKL and sells standalone tickets for this leg. Those flights remain paused, but with Taiwan on New Zealand’s visa waiver list and New Zealand opening to fully vaccinated travelers from visa…