Qatar Airways brings back four Saudi routes this winter and adds more flights

More than 155 weekly Saudi flights planned, up over 10% from the summer season

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Qatar Airways is one of the launch customers for the Airbus A350
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Dubai: Travellers flying between Saudi Arabia and Doha will have more options this winter, with Qatar Airways bringing four destinations back into its network and increasing its overall Saudi schedule to more than 155 flights a week.

The airline will resume flights to Qassim from October 25, followed by Taif on October 31. Yanbu will return on January 2, 2027, with Tabuk following on January 3.

Each of the four routes will operate twice a week. The expanded winter schedule represents an increase of more than 10% in weekly Saudi services compared with the summer season.

Four routes return

Qassim will be the first destination to return, with an initial Sunday service from October 25. A second weekly flight will begin on Fridays from October 30.

Flights to Taif will operate every Wednesday and Saturday from October 31.

Yanbu services will begin on January 2, 2027, with flights every Wednesday and Saturday, while Tabuk will return from January 3 with services every Thursday and Sunday.

Passengers can already book the returning services through Qatar Airways' website or mobile app.

More flights between Saudi Arabia and Doha

The additions come after Qatar Airways increased frequencies on some of its busiest Saudi routes.

The airline raised its Riyadh schedule from 35 to 49 weekly flights in June 2026, giving passengers more departure options and connections through Hamad International Airport in Doha.

More than 2.3 million passengers travelled between Saudi Arabia and Qatar Airways' global network over the past 12 months, according to the airline.

Once the four destinations return, Qatar Airways' Saudi network will include Abha, AlUla, Qassim, Dammam, Hail, Jeddah, Madinah, Riyadh, Tabuk, Taif, The Red Sea and Yanbu.

NEOM services are due to resume in the second half of 2027.

Starlink available on key Saudi routes

Passengers travelling on some services between Doha and Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam can also access complimentary high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi when their flight is operated by an eligible widebody aircraft.

Qatar Airways operated more than 685 Starlink-equipped flights across those three Saudi routes in July 2026 alone.

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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