Qatar Airways Boosts Canberra Flights To Daily

Qatar Airways' return to Canberra is already locked in for December 2026, but the airline has just upgraded the frequency before the route even launched. Instead of the previously planned 4 weekly flights, Canberra will now see a daily Qatar service later this year.

It's a meaningful vote of confidence for a route with a rocky past, and it comes as part of a broader capacity build-up through Melbourne this northern winter.

“Qatar Airways’ return will give Canberrans better global connectivity and more competition, while supporting tourism, trade, business travel, education and visiting friends and relatives,” Canberra Airport CEO Stephen Byron said when Qatar’s return was confirmed.

Qatar's Doha-Melbourne-Canberra service resumes daily from 8 December 2026. Flights will be operated by Qatar’s Boeing 777-300ER, which feature Qsuites in business class and free Starlink WiFi.

Qatar's Canberra schedule runs as follows:

• QR988 Doha 8:15am → Melbourne 5:45am (+1) → Canberra 8:20am (+1)
• QR989 Canberra 12:30pm → Melbourne 1:45pm → Doha 10:25pm

Like the new Melbourne-Auckland tag flight, Qatar will operate to Canberra as a through-service, but unfortunately, it will not be possible to book the leg between Canberra and Melbourne on its own.

But there is some good news for Canberrans: the stopovers in Melbourne are relatively modest. Heading to Doha, you'll sit in Melbourne for around 1 hour 30 minutes, while the return to Canberra has a longer 2 hour 25 minute stop in Melbourne.

How To Book Qatar’s Canberra Flights With Points

Qatar Airways is already dropping reward seats on these Canberra flights via its own Privilege Club loyalty program. For a one-way redemption, you will need 35,000 Avios for economy or 70,000 Avios for business.

In Australia, only two banks offer transfers to Qatar Privilege Club - Amex Membership Rewards and Virgin Money. Check out our flexible bank rewards matrix for more details.

For example, the current welcome offer on the Amex Platinum Business Card is more than enough points to cover this redemption. Membership Rewards Points convert to Qatar Avios at a 3:1 ratio, meaning 350,000 MR Points is the equivalent of 116,000 Avios.

Of course Virgin Australia is a close partner of Qatar Airways, and we can use Velocity Points to book Qatar flights. Velocity Points have the benefit of being very easy to earn in Australia.

To book a Velocity Reward Seat on Qatar Airways from Canberra to Doha, you would need 56,000 Velocity Points for economy, or 119,500 Velocity Points for business class.

Use Reward Search Tools To Easily Locate Award Seats

The fastest way to check and compare reward seat availability across airline loyalty schemes is with a third party tool like Seats Aero or Gyoza Flights. Simply punch in Canberra to Doha, and you'll get a quick overview of what's showing across the dates you entered.

From there, reward search tools allow you to filter out results, and click through to book with the frequent flyer program of your choice. If you can’t find a seat, you can even set an alert for when they drop.

Summing Up

It’s always good to see more international flights into Australia. Qatar and Canberra have had a rocky past, with flights launched and suspended a number of times over the years. Combined with the new Melbourne-Auckland service, it's shaping up as a bigger Australian summer for Qatar than originally planned.