In early 2025, Qatar Airways announced plans to launch service to two new destinations in South America, as part of a triangle flight. However, nothing actually came of that… until now. Qatar Airways has just once again announced these plans, and service will start in the coming weeks.
Qatar Airways will fly to Colombia & Venezuela
As of July 22, 2026, Qatar Airways will launch a new route that will serve two destinations in South America. Specifically, the airline will fly from Doha, Qatar (DOH), to Bogota, Colombia (BOG). Then on the return, the airline will fly via Caracas, Venezuela (CCS), with pick-up and drop-off rights there. The route will operate with the following schedule:
QR783 Doha to Bogota departing 7:30AM arriving 4:05PM
QR783 Bogota to Caracas departing 5:35PM arriving 8:40PM
QR783 Caracas to Doha departing 10:40PM arriving 7:55PM (+1 day)
The airline will operate twice weekly, on Wednesdays and Sundays in both directions, using the Boeing 777-200LR. While Qatar Airways will be able to pick-up and drop-off passengers in Caracas, a major motivation for the stop is that Bogota is at such a high altitude that an aircraft couldn’t fly nonstop to Doha without major payload restrictions. Meanwhile routing via Caracas, which is at a lower altitude, makes that all possible.
This will be one of Qatar Airways’ longest routes. The Doha to Bogota segment covers a distance of 8,261 miles, and is blocked at 16hr15min. For the return via Caracas, the first segment covers 636 miles, and is blocked at 2hr5min, while the second segment covers 7,630 miles, and is blocked at 14hr15min. The Caracas stop adds only five miles to the direct air distance.
For context on the length of that flight, Qatar Airways’ flights to California and Texas all cover somewhere around 8,000 to 8,300 miles, so this flight will be a comparable length. Meanwhile Qatar Airways’ longest route is to New Zealand, and that flight covers just over 9,000 miles.
How this fits into Qatar Airways’ network
Currently Qatar Airways’ only destination in South America is Sao Paulo, Brazil (GRU), which is served twice daily. Before the pandemic, Qatar Airways also had a tag flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE), but that’s no longer operated. Bogota and Caracas will be Qatar Airways’ 15th and 16th destinations in the Americas.
I’m not super familiar with the economics of ultra long haul service to Northern South America. On the one hand, this seems like a really long route, and you need decent yields to make the economics of service like this work.
On the other hand, Qatar Airways owns a stake in LATAM, which has a decent network out of Bogota. So between LATAM and general interline opportunities, this would potentially capture traffic headed to the top half of South America. Also keep in mind that connecting in the United States can be complicated for some, given that you need a visa to transit the United States internationally.
The pick-up and drop-off rights in Caracas are interesting as well, and one wonders how much potential traffic there will be on that route. Turkish Airlines offers up to twice daily flights from Istanbul (IST) to Caracas, so clearly there’s some demand, I’d be fascinated to see where people connect from that flight, beyond Istanbul. Of course it’s an interesting time for Venezuela, given what’s currently going on, and we’ve even seen the resumption of nonstop flights from the United States.
Speaking of Middle Eastern airlines flying to Bogota and transiting the United States, Qatar Airways won’t be the first Gulf carrier to fly to Bogota. In June 2024, we saw Emirates add a new fifth freedom flight to Bogota out of Miami (MIA), as an extension of the carrier’s existing service to Miami.
As you can see, Emirates is taking a totally different approach there, for better or worse. The airline is able to capture some of the Miami to Bogota market (which is substantial), though perhaps the flight isn’t as convenient for those traveling between the Gulf region and Colombia, given the challenges with transiting the US. Flying Emirates first class between Miami and Bogota sure is a treat, though!
Bottom line
As of July 2026, Qatar Airways will launch twice weekly flights to Bogota, Colombia, and Caracas, Venezuela. The plan is for the outbound flight to operate nonstop to Bogota, while the return flight will operate with a stop, via Caracas. That’s partly to serve local Caracas traffic, and also to refuel, given Bogota’s high altitude.
It’ll be interesting to see how this route performs, as it’s one of the more interesting ultra long haul routes we’ve seen launched by a Gulf carrier. Then again, with Turkish Airlines flying to Caracas up to twice daily, I imagine there will be demand for Qatar Airways as well.
What do you make of Qatar Airways adding Bogota and Caracas flights?