Qatar Airways to fly to Sydney as bilateral is relaxed. It will need on-carriage & Doha connections

A week after the Australian government granted the State of Qatar - and therefore Qatar Airways - a long-sought capacity increase, Qatar Airways has wasted no time and announced a daily Doha-Sydney service from 01-Mar-2016 on the 777-300ER. This finally places Qatar in Australia's largest city, complementing existing daily services to Melbourne and Perth.

The generous-sounding 50% capacity increase means an additional seven weekly flights to primary gateways for a total of 21 for Qatar. This compares to Emirates' 84 weekly flights to primary gateways. Qatar's scheduled seat capacity into Australia will be 17% the size of Emirates and 44% the size of Etihad. Although Qatar will finally add Sydney to its network, it faces some challenges making European connections work due to its hub structure. One disadvantage it may face too is on-carriage. Qantas - which partners extensively with Emirates - does not carry Qatar's code on any of its services and Etihad and Virgin Australia are partners.