Qatar Airways plans Brisbane-Auckland flights

Qatar Airways will begin daily flights between Brisbane and Auckland in June 2027, adding another option for travellers headed across the Tasman.

The move mirrors Qatar’s just-announced Melbourne-Auckland flights by adding what aviation jargon is called a ‘tag’ leg or ‘fifth freedom flight’ between the Queensland capital and New Zealand’s largest city.

This sees the long-standing Doha-Brisbane route extended through to Auckland and back – bringing an international-grade Boeing 777 with lie-flat business class suites and fast free Starlink Wi-Fi onto the 3-4 hour hop across the pond.

This is the best way to fly between Brisbane and Auckland...

The new flights are now listed on the Qatar Airways website, although the airline has yet to officially announce them, and declined to comment when approached by Executive Traveller.

Here’s the schedule, which kicks off on Saturday June 26, 2027.

QR898 departs Brisbane at 12.55am (ouch!) to reach Auckland at 5.55am.

It’s similar and rather unfriendly timing to Qatar’s Melbourne-Auckland flights, so our same observations apply: the late night (or rather, early morning) departure leads into a very short red-eye flight (power naps for the win).

In addition, travellers headed to Auckland rather than connecting to any onwards flight would be best off booking their hotel room from the day before rather than gamble on the availability of an early check-in.

QR899 leaves Auckland at 11:20am, landing back in Brisbane at 1:10pm, before continuing onto Doha at 3:10pm.

The one-way airfares from Brisbane to Auckland begin around $550 in economy and $1,300 in business class.

Selected pairs of Qsuites can be converted into a double bed.

As part of the Auckland extension, Qatar Airways will move its daily Brisbane flight into the same slots currently used by Virgin Australia’s VA15/VA16 flights between Brisbane and Doha – which of course run on a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 with crew and catering supplied by Qatar Airways.

At the time of writing it’s not clear how those VA flights will change – although as we’ve seen with Qatar's new Melbourne-Auckland service, Virgin may end up adopting the original Qatar Airways slots.

Other airlines connecting Brisbane and Auckland include:

• Qantas, with a mix of Boeing 737s and bigger more comfortable Airbus A330s
• Air New Zealand, featuring the Airbus A321neo, Boeing 777 and Boeing 787
• Taiwan’s China Airlines, which operates its own ‘tag’ leg on a modern Airbus A350

Also read: How Qatar Airways’ free Qsuite Guarantee works