What happened to Qatar Airways services to Bogota and Caracas?
Posted by blumieree@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 32 comments
In January 2025, Qatar Airways announced that it was going to begin services from Doha to Bogota, Bogota to Caracas, and Caracas to Doha. It said that it was going to begin in Summer 2025. However, nothing has happened since then.
What happened to this proposed service? What news have come up about it? Is it ever going to happen? When is it going to begin? Is it cancelled?
kogimaster@reddit
read the news, the issue is geopolitical
blumieree@reddit (OP)
The Iran war? But they said it was going to begin Summer 2025? So when do you think they will commence?
kogimaster@reddit
Its because of the regime in venezuela, seriously read the news.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
The regime in Venezuela is weakened thanks to Maduro’s removal from power. The fact that American Airlines is resuming flights to Caracas in a few days proves that the country is beginning to heal. So there’s no problem for Qatar to do a Doha - Bogota - Caracas - Doha route.
Cautious_Use_7442@reddit
Qatar has a habit of announcing destinations with nothing happening afterwards. Back in 2016, QR announced that they'd start flying to Las Vegas by 2018.
10 years later and there are still no flights there.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
Yeah, it doesn't make sense. What's the point of announcing them if nothing ends up happening
carrickshairline@reddit
Airlines do it all the time. They announce the route, but they cancel it before it takes off if they do not see any consistent demand.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
Still pointless. They should announce it once its certain they will launch the flights
carrickshairline@reddit
The announcement in itself is to see if there is demand. Having the flights is one thing, but having the passengers to pay the flight is another. There is no point in having paid to operate the flight if it doesn't make money.
Fly_YYZ@reddit
I have no direct knowledge, but I’d wager a bet that the unrest in Venezuela likely had an impact on this.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
American Airlines is resuming flights to Venezuela in a few days. So airlines are beginning to return back to Venezuela. Also, the unrest has continued to improve since January.
FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit
AA has a very long-standing presence in Venezuela and has always tried to maintain flights there, even through significant economic problems in Venezuela, until the US Government suspended flights from Venezuela. They were the biggest air carrier to Caracas before their flights were suspended.
It's not surprising they're going back as soon as they can.
It's not a well established market for Qatar airways so it's no surprise they decided not to start service after unrest, invasion, kidnapping of the head of state, and various other problems.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
I'm not sure what your point is. The removal of the head of state is what is going to help Venezuela change for the better. Venezuela has needed a change of political leadership and government for a very long time, and it is finally happening. So it is a good thing.
My point is that if American Airlines is returning, then it may lead to other airlines returning in the near future. So it would make sense for Qatar Airways to join. Plus, Emirates already does flights to Bogota, so Qatar Airways will want to follow their steps.
FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit
You're totally ignoring the actual point. Starting air service to a country and a capital city that is or recently has civil unrest, foreign military forces carrying out hostile operation, sudden changes in government caused by external action, and so on, is starting air service to an unstable place that few travellers are likely to want to go to.
It doesn't matter why these things are happening, or what your opinion of it is. What matters is that most people don't pay to buy airline tickets to places in that state.
AA is trying to preserve their long-standing market position and transporting the people who do want to go there from the US. Qatar would be trying to enter a market where there is already an established carrier, transporting people who would be going there for less strong reasons than the people coming on AA.
It doesn't make commercial sense for Qatar to go there until Venezuela is a calmer, richer place.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
Again, the foreign military operation is actually what is going to help Venezuela improve and become a better country. This is the beginning of it.
"Few travellers are likely want to go to" What???
The American Airlines flights from Miami to Caracas cost $2,000 to $4,000 round trip for 1 person, and most of the seats for the first few flights are bully booked. There is clearly a very high demand for Caracas, and many people want to travel to Venezuela, especially given that air travel options have been reduced in the last decade. You don't know what you are talking about.
I'm not sure what being rich has to do with any of this. Qatar Airways flies to plenty of poor countries without problem. Plus, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, so it actually is the richest in terms of natural resources.
fly_awayyy@reddit
I don’t think your realizing long story short Venezuela is an emerging and developing market and not justified to send long haul service there just yet…I mean this is pretty basic and standard development of route networks in airlines. So 1 airline AA on a regional jet on a short flight…that doesn’t equate to sending a widebodby on an ultra long haul flight. The irony also is Qatar and AA are one world alliance members so Qatar could route them onto the AA flight…you know how partners do instead of launching their own flight to begin with?
blumieree@reddit (OP)
I agree that it is an emerging and developing market. Obviously. It was under the Maduro dictatorship. But Qatar Airways did announce that they were going to do a service to Bogota, and Caracas on the flight back to Doha. I believe this would be profitable, since you would be combining two capital cities. It would also help to improve the connectivity between Asia and South America.
fly_awayyy@reddit
I mean you just answered it by saying it’s emerging and developing…if they saw a use case they’d launch it. And Avianca has the BOG-CCS market covered too think about it. Yes we know Maduro is out but what matters is if money is flowing. We saw a quicker resumption and scale up to Syria so far. That should be your direct comparison imo.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
I mean, the situations in Syria and Venezuela have a lot of similarities, but the outcomes may be different. Venezuela is going to recover now that Maduro is out. I actually think that by Qatar Airways launching it, that it would help develop market, because it would invite more airlines and flights.
fly_awayyy@reddit
I mean what they do with the oil money and this admin how they want to run the company and how it is run is going to set the tone. As far as Qatar launching flights to “stimulate the market” the Middle East airlines do a lot of vanity projects but they’re very business oriented they are not going to launch a long haul wide body flight just to stimulate Venezuelas economy and aviation market…? Venezuela has its own airlines for starters not sure where you’re going with this.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
Venezuela’s airlines primarily operate domestically and to nearby regional destinations. The flight Qatar Airways proposed was Doha - Bogota - Caracas - Doha, so it would be hitting two cities at once. It would be different if it did only Doha - Caracas - Doha, as the demand would be much less. Plus, I think they mentioned they were going to use 777-200, so it’s a slightly smaller aircraft.
I still think launching the flights would be beneficial, since it would help connect South America with Asia more.
fly_awayyy@reddit
If you know about the 777-200LR it’s a gas guzzler…you don’t put it on a route that has marginal performance. So once again not helping the discussion. Plus there needs to be travelers who want to go from Asia to Venezuela and vice versa. The airlines do all this market research before they launch a route. If you have something figured out and realized the population just came into tremendous amount of money to warrant that shoot Qatar a tip lol or even Emirates and Etihad. You keep citing that one route that was supposed to launch…well market conditions evolve. If your on the aviation sub you know fuel prices has killed or put a halt temporarily to marginal routes and using a 777-200LR on a marginal routes with these fuel prices is pretty much a dead no.
If you atleast would articulate there’s a cargo demand since they’re an emergency economy I’d give you that but you won’t use that. Also Venezuelans airlines have narrow body aircraft that can generally cover the Americas. Their wide-bodies “Convisa” can fill the same role as any foreign airline. They flew Caracas to Damascus regularly on a A340-600 not sure if they still do. So they have the capability for home growth.
Fly_YYZ@reddit
It’s a good start, but still apples to oranges. As others mentioned, American has a history with operating there (so it’s a resumption - not a new service). Also, I suspect American isn’t planning any layovers, which helps both the logistics and the risk assessment. Further, the AA resumption may be more reason for it not to be urgent for Qatar, given their partnership with American.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
That’s true, since they are both Oneworld alliance. My point was that since American is returning, that it may push other airlines to do the same in the future, like AirFrance, KLM, Lufthansa, etc., which used to travel to Venezuela a lot.
Since the route that Qatar announced was Doha - Bogota - Caracas - Doha, I think there would be more demand since it’s not just Doha - Caracas - Doha.
MaddingtonBear@reddit
It's really hard to pay for fuel in CCS and there's no guarantee that it will be available. They have to load fuel in CCS because they can't make it BOG-DOH nonstop off the elevation in Bogota. The alternative would be to fuel in Bogota to MLW in Caracas, then depart off Caracas to somewhere like Barbados for a tech stop, but at that point why bother? Also, the end destination for Venezuela-Middle East travelers is largely Iran.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
Not really. It wouldn’t be Iran. It’s only the Maduro government that has ties to Iran, but not the individual citizens.
I think keeping it how they announced it would make sense. A fuel stop in Caracas. Then continue onwards to Doha.
MaddingtonBear@reddit
And Conviasa operating Caracas-Tehran flights were.... for fun? No, there were enough people traveling between Venezuela and Iran to justify operating the flight.
blumieree@reddit (OP)
Actually, if you search up videos on YouTube about flying on Conviasa, you’ll notice that many of the flights were actually almost completely empty. There were probably 20-30 passengers at most. It’s not certain why Conviasa does these flights in the first place, but it’s probably because the government wants to maintain good relations with its friends (Iran, China, etc.)
umyselfwe@reddit
makes sense; narco $ & petro $
blumieree@reddit (OP)
?
sneijder@reddit
Iran of course ?
There were airport with long established double daily flights even still getting flights back until 16th June
https://www.qatarairways.com/en/travel-alerts.html
It was only last week the Qatari CAA opened DOH to foreign airlines too with exceptions
FC_Primary1@reddit
The Iran war has made it not possible due to airspace restrictions and limitation of aircraft that can make the range .They need to rebuild there existing network let alone add a new destination. Pre Feb 28th war it was scheduled to start this month.