Finnair Ends 2 Doha Flights: Qatar Airways Takes Over

Intro

Finnair has long had a partnership with its fellow Oneworld Alliance member, Qatar Airways. For the past while, the airline has continued service from Stockholm and Copenhagen to the capital city of Qatar. With Russian airspace causing these flights to have a significant detour: Finnair has decided to hand both of these services fully over to Qatar Airways.

The Details 

Finnair previously flew three routes from Scandinavia to Doha, one being from Stockholm, the other being from Copenhagen, and the final one being from their main hub, Helsinki. While it seems that the daily Helsinki flight still seems to be up and running for the rest of the calendar year, Qatar Airways has taken over all daily flights connecting Doha and ARN/Copenhagen. 

Finnair Operates a once daily flight between Helsinki and Doha on an A330-300

The Reason

Flights between Scandinavia and the Middle East have been a tad complicated with the ongoing conflict in Russia/Ukraine. Instead of flying through Russian airspace, flights have to take a detour to the West adding significantly extra time. In addition, there is also the conflict in the Middle East which tends to be adding even more problems with this flight. 

Looking at the patterns from Flight-radar, it seems that the Finnair flights to Doha seemed to be erring on the side of caution by flying down South to the East of Egypt, before continuing on to Doha. However, Qatar Airways, in general, seems to be taking the more* direct route through Iraq airspace… 

If you have plans to fly from Stockholm or Copenhagen to Doha, the only direct options will be 3x daily flights from CPH-DOH (1x A350, 2x 787-8), and a 1x daily flight from ARN to Doha. 

Qatar Airways Flies Copenhagen-Doha 1x Daily With Their A350-900

Final Thoughts 

Finnair has decided to end service from Stockholm and Copenhagen to Doha, giving way to the only other competitor, and their fellow Oneworld alliance member, Qatar Airways. Considering the complexities of this route, combined with the additional fuel, I understand why Finnair have decided to do this. However, there now remains only one airline connecting these capitals: Qatar!