Qatar Airways schedules are about to take a big shift, with many flights reduced by an hour or more now that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE have ended their boycott of the airline’s home state, allowing Qatar flights to take straight-line paths that fly over neighboring territory.
Since mid-2017, Qatar flights have had to follow circuitous routes over water and over non-boycotting countries on its flights to Europe, Africa and Asia. The cost has come not only in time, but also in extra fuel costs.
While the new agreements mean that Qatar Airways will be able to fly straighter paths, it is not yet clear whether flights among the countries involved will resume.
The circuitous routes cost them customers, too. Having endured non-sensical flight paths to Southern Africa twice, we decided that we would not use Qatar again for such journeys.