Qatar Airways was the launch customer of both the Airbus A350-900 and A350-1000. According to ch-aviation, the oneworld member has 63 A350s: 34 -900s and 29 -1000s. They account for 27% of the airline’s total passenger fleet.
The Gulf giant’s schedule submission to OAG shows that the Airbus widebody will be deployed from Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) to 73 destinations globally between August 2026 and February 2027. On a typical day, the equipment will be used on 61 departures from DOH.
The carrier’s full A350-900 and A350-1000 nonstop and one-stop route network from August 2026 to February 2027 has been explored. As usual with such analysis, the maximum block or scheduled time has been used. Reflecting slot possession, this includes taxiing at both ends of a route, the flight time, and a period for short delays. It is chocks-off-to-chocks-on, or stand-to-stand or gate-to-gate, and is what’s shown in booking engines, in schedules, and so on.
The following table and the subsequent map show Qatar Airways’ longest A350 operations. Unsurprisingly, nearly all the entries involve the US. They include Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), which will welcome the return of the carrier on August 1, having replaced close partner American Airlines. There will be more on this development later in the article.
PHL has had nonstop flights to/from DOH since 2014. The oneworld hub-to-hub airport pair was originally served by Qatar Airways from 2014 to 2022, when the 777-200LR, 777-300ER, A350-900, and A350-1000 were all used. However, the A350-1000 only appeared a few times.
In 2023, the route, which covers 5,906 nautical miles (10,938 km) each way, switched to American, with the 787-9 always deployed. Until then, American had flown from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to DOH. By ending flights to PHL, Qatar Airways increased the frequency on JFK-DOH to counterbalance the exit of American.
Now things have changed again. American will no longer fly to DOH (or indeed the Middle East at all until next March at the earliest). In two weeks time, on August 1, Qatar Airways will return to PHL, with a daily operation on the 283-seat A350-900.
Let’s look at the schedule for August. To maximize two-way connectivity in DOH, QR727 will depart from the Middle East at 7:30 AM and get to PHL at 2:30 PM local time. After seven hours on the ground, QR728 will leave at 9:30 PM and return at 5:00 PM+1. As the figure above shows, this corresponds properly with the airline’s main departures and arrivals banks to/from North America. The schedule is somewhat different from when American operated.
With barely 70% of seats filled, it is perhaps not too surprising that this route has ended. Find out more here!
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) shows that Qatar Airways and American collectively transported 1.8 million round-trip passengers between DOH and PHL from 2014 and 2025. Let’s focus on 2022, when Qatar Airways partly flew the A350-900 and A350-1000 to Pennsylvania. In that year, the carrier flew 212,360 passengers to/from PHL, with an 85.3% load factor.
Booking data suggests that approximately 63% of the passengers originated/ended in PHL and connected to another flight in DOH. Obviously, India was overwhelmingly the largest market. 30% transited to another flight in PHL and DOH, while 4% only flew between DOH and PHL, and 3% began/ended in DOH and transited in PHL. In other words, a third of Qatar Airways’ passengers also flew American.
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