Virgin Australia takes off to Doha with Qatar Airways wet lease

Virgin Australia’s flights to Qatar kick off this week, with Sydney-Doha spreading its wings from 12 June 2025. Operated by Qatar Airways on behalf of Virgin Australia, the new services will significantly boost available seats between Australia and Qatar. In turn, this creates more opportunities for Aussies to take onward connections to destinations across the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Now running daily from Sydney, Brisbane is next in line for direct wet lease services to Doha. Those flights begin on 19 June, swiftly followed by Perth on 26 June. As for Melbourne, it’s a matter of waiting until the Christmas season with the launch a few weeks prior, on 1 December.

Today marks the beginning of a new era for Virgin Australia and for international travel from Australia. Through our partnership with Qatar Airways, we’re not just launching a new route, we’re opening the world to millions of Australians, delivering more choice, better value and a seamless global experience. This partnership strengthens Australia’s global connectivity while generating jobs, boosting tourism and injecting billions into the national economy.

-Dave Emerson, Virgin Australia CEO, 12 June 2025

Doesn’t Qatar Airways already fly to Doha as a Virgin partner?

It’s true that Qatar Airways already operates its own flights from these four cities to Doha. (And from Adelaide, too, but there’s no limit on those.) Virgin Australia already codeshares on those flights. So what’s this all about?

In a word, capacity. Qatar Airways had already reached the limit on how many of its own flights it could operate into Australia’s busiest airports every week. Qatar had approached the Australian Government to increase this cap, but this wasn’t successful. Getting more flights to Doha required a different approach.

Rather than operating more of its ‘own’ flights, which isn’t permitted, Qatar Airways has since taken equity in Virgin Australia. In turn, Virgin Australia – not Qatar Airways – is launching these Doha flights as a ‘wet lease’, whereby Qatar Airways does the flying on Virgin’s behalf. In time, Virgin Australia may take over the route with its own planes and cabin crew, but not in the immediate term.

Confused? We don’t blame you. While it’s a little complicated, a wet lease is a common aviation arrangement. It’s where one airline outsources the flying to another airline. For instance, how Qantas engages Finnair to cover the flying on selected routes between Australia and Asia. Under Virgin’s own arrangement, the operating airline (Qatar Airways) provides the plane, the pilots and the cabin crew. But, technically, it’s a Virgin Australia flight.

It’s still different from a codeshare. That’s where one airline sells tickets on another airline’s flight. Like how Virgin Australia passengers could already book many of Qatar Airways’ existing services on a VA flight number, rather than the usual QR code, but still travel on the same plane.

What this all means for travellers

When you put the technicalities and complexities aside, these new flights bring a few key benefits for travellers.

• Flexibility on schedule. Having an extra service to choose from every day opens the door for passengers to potentially travel at a more convenient time. That’s because the new flight doesn’t replace an old service – it adds more choice.
• More connection opportunities. Qatar Airways has a wide network of flights beyond Doha. With more inbound connections, travellers may be able to minimise their connection time in Doha by choosing optimal flights based on their ultimate destination.
• More opportunities to earn and spend points. These new services can be booked using Velocity Points as Virgin Australia flights. The rate is the same as when redeeming for Qatar Airways’ own flights between Australia and Doha. You’ll need 119,500 Velocity Points for one-way Business Class from the east coast cities, or 89,500 Velocity Points from Perth. In Economy, it’s 56,000 and 42,000 Velocity Points, respectively. Taxes, fees and charges are also payable and vary by route and cabin class.
• Velocity members can soon upgrade using points. This isn’t otherwise possible using Velocity Points when flying with Qatar Airways. Points-based upgrades will become available from 1 July 2025, and can be requested via the Virgin Australia call centre, subject to availability.
• More competition on flights between Australia and Europe. Generally speaking, competition in the skies puts downward pressure on the pricing of paid airfares. After all, flying empty planes isn’t a good way to generate revenue!

It’ll be interesting to see how popular these new flights become, and whether travellers will ultimately notice much difference between the new wet lease flights and traditional Qatar Airways departures.

Also read: Virgin Australia rolls out dining vouchers, more Velocity perks for Qatar long-haul flights

Featured image courtesy of Virgin Australia.