Qatar Airways to fly from Melbourne and Brisbane to Auckland
That quick hop across the pond is becoming more competitive...
By David Flynn, July 23 2026
Executive Traveller exclusive
Qatar Airways will extend its daily Doha-Melbourne and Doha-Brisbane flights to Auckland, and hopes to carve out a slice of the market for these popular routes across the Tasman.
The same Boeing 777s which now make the 13½-hour trek from Doha to Melbourne and Brisbane will add a quick 3-4 hour hop across the pond to Auckland, before returning later that day to tackle their respective Melbourne-Doha and Brisbane-Doha journeys.
This means travellers can look forward to the exceptional Qsuites business class – along with top-notch catering – plus the bonus of fast and free Starlink Wi-Fi for every passenger.
Qatar's Starlink inflight Wi-Fi is probably faster than you have on the ground.
According to the Federal Government’s latest figures, almost 1.1 million people flew between Melbourne and Auckland from March 2025 to March 2026, while Brisbane-Auckland carried 943,000 travellers across the same period.
It’s not an uncommon practice for some international airlines to add an Australia-New Zealand leg to their schedules, to utilise the aircraft during what could otherwise be an extended layover.
Emirates’ daily Dubai-Sydney-Christchurch A380 flight is a popular example among savvy travellers, especially for passengers who book a ticket in the premium cabins, with Starlux adding Taipei-Sydney-Auckland next year.
Qatar Airways’ new trans-Tasman flights
While Qatar Airways has yet to officially announce these add-on Auckland legs – which in aviation jargon are called ‘tags’ or ‘fifth freedom flights’ – both the Melbourne-Auckland and Brisbane-Auckland routes have now appeared on the Qatar Airways website.
A spokesperson for Qatar Airways declined to comment when approached by Executive Traveller.
The listed airfares are on par with Qantas and Air New Zealand, starting from around $1,300 in business class and $550 in economy.
Of course, the Qatar Airways experience is markedly superior – especially in business class – although the post-midnight departure of flights from Melbourne and Brisbane and their 6am-7am arrival at Auckland will be less than ideal for many.
This is the best way to fly between Brisbane and Auckland...
Qatar Airways currently flies an Adelaide-Auckland leg on the back of its Doha-Adelaide service, but this is being dropped as of December 9.
From what the QR schedule shows, the new Melbourne-Auckland flights begin on Thursday December 10 and run through to late June 2027, at which stage Brisbane-Auckland appears to take over the trans-Tasman tag.
Qatar Airways’ Melbourne–Auckland flights from December 10
QR904 will depart Melbourne at 1:20am, landing in Auckland at 6:50am: now this will be a bit of an ask, with the late night (or rather, early morning) wheels-up time leading into a very short red-eye flight (power naps for the win!).
In addition, travellers staying in Auckland will need to roll the dice on their hotel providing an early check-in, or carry the cost of booking their stay from the day before.
However, if you’re catching a connecting early-morning domestic flight from Auckland to elsewhere within New Zealand, or live in Auckland and are headed home, the timings could work for you.
QR905 leaves Auckland at 1:15pm, to reach Melbourne at 3:10pm: much better, especially for the ability to pop into the Auckland lounge of fellow Oneworld member Qantas.
To accommodate this extra Auckland leg, Qatar Airways will shuffle its Doha-Melbourne QR904/QR905 service into the slots currently held by Virgin Australia’s VA7/VA8 flights, with Virgin moving into the existing QR904/905 timings.
Enjoy true international-grade business class service on this quick trans-Tasman hop.
Qatar Airways’ Brisbane–Auckland flights from June 26
From Saturday June 26, 2027, it seems the Melbourne-Auckland flights end and Brisbane-Auckland begins.
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 made earlier apply here.
QR899 leaves Auckland at 11:20am, landing back in Brisbane at 1:10pm, before continuing onto Doha at 3:10pm.
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.
Selected pairs of Qsuites can be converted into a double bed.
Other airlines connecting Brisbane and Auckland include:
- Qantas, with a mix of Boeing 737s and the 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
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 Feb 2015
Total posts 411
Word has it they are doing BNE to AKL also. Announcement imminent.
11 Sep 2015
Total posts 276
This sounds like a very smart move by QR, to soak up a lot of the strong AU-NZ traffic. I wonder if they would be tempted to add SYD-AKL?
07 May 2015
Total posts 78
I would certainly like to see this, QR doing these tag flights from BNE/SYD/MEL to AKL.
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
23 May 2013
Total posts 45
This is already on sale on their website from 26 jun next year. Looks like $1K return
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2585
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2585
Thanks for the heads-up, Mightyreds – BNE-AKL not yet announced but lobbed onto the QR schedule this evening!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 404
Why would anyone want to do this when they could choose to fly in a Qantas 737?
07 May 2015
Total posts 78
Yes no contest there, why on Earth would anybody want to fly in a private flatbed suite with super-fast Starlink wifi plus QR's amazing service and meals when they could be crammed into a 2-2 business class seat and be offered a Neil Perry 'salad' of three different types of lettuce?
22 Sep 2017
Total posts 114
And keep in mind these flights are below many corporates’ duration threshold for business class. So, agree, why would anyone put up with 4 hours in 737 economy when they can use OW lounge (if eligible) and earn points in a 777? On the other hand, the schedule out of Melb might be such a reason…
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 1098
Nice, Qantas points for Qantas Loyalists and Velocity points for Virgin Loyalists or Avios Points take your pick, or how about a Qatar base in Australia considering my prediction of at least 4 years of war affecting the Middle East. Bring it On.
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1283
What would be the point of a QR base in Australia? Apart from New Zealand, I don't thing they would have rights to fly anywhere except DOH and some one-stop services back to DOH through places like SIN and KUL.
Despite the war, it appears the ME3 are resuming services quite quickly so the level of disruption to their overall prewar route network is declining very fast.
Whilst QFF points are available on QR services, the testy relationship between Qantas and Qatar means the earn rate of both QFF points and SCs is very low.
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 1098
Well look what happened today, the ME3 need a plan B urgently if they can't keep the airspace open and protected. Australia and other countries should be assisting them as much as possible.
24 Apr 2014
Total posts 274
They are doing what Emirates used to do between Australian East coast cities & Auckland
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 May 2012
Total posts 94
120am departure will hurt,
07 May 2015
Total posts 78
Melbournians are sorta used to it but yes it makes for a very long day, and you would want to have early check-in locked in for your Auckland hotel or better yet book your room from the night before.
01 Oct 2021
Total posts 25
What will happen to the VA7/8 flight times? If QR904/905 are taking over the Virgin flight times to and from Melbourne, then either the Vigrin flights or the Canberra QR988/989 will need to be retimed, otherwise we will have 3x afternoon departures to Doha and no late night departure.
06 Jun 2017
Total posts 64
VA7 will be leaving MEL at 11:40pm (was 5:10pm)
VA8 will be leaving DOH at 8:20pm (was 1:50am)
16 Feb 2017
Total posts 4
Interesting to see if QF responds - Qantas business across the ditch was downgraded to a smart domestic service immediately Emirates stopped their SYDAKL. Can't wait to see the last of their 14yo 737s!
01 Jun 2017
Total posts 25
Emirates used to do SYD/MEL/BNE to AKL with A380s. There was a picture when 4 A380s sitting side by side of one another in AKL which includes the DXB-AKL direct on A380 + 3 tags from Australia. But then eventually, they faded away and Emirates only retained DXB - SYD - CHC as the only NZ service from Australia. Emirates used to do an afternoon arrival into AKL unlike QR an early morning. Good timing for those that would like an early morning arrival especially those from DOH. Hopefully these flights are here to stay and give passengers more options.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
20 Jul 2018
Total posts 19
A SYD-AKL-SYD QR option would be very nice. The route is much less competitive than it was a decade or so ago.
But at least we're getting Starlux on the route, and at civilised flight times too - plus their hard and soft product (even on the A330neo, which is kinda sorta their regional product) is comparable to QR in my opinion. And if they would just hurry up and join OneWorld, as they are rumoured to be attempting, that would really seal the deal.
18 Nov 2023
Total posts 34
We used to use the Qantas 2355 MEL-AKL two to three times a year but it was moved to Jetstar and no provincial code share service (understandable as Jetstar competes within NZ (mainline), Qantas doesn’t), so goodbye to that arrangement which snagged us an extra day in MEL … back to Air NZ (we ‘got over’ the adrenaline high of split ticket tight transfers many years ago after a couple of ‘failures’).
These proposed Qatar times would suit us nicely, but an AI query reveals very little chance of provincial links via their common One World alliance and the Qantas code share to provincial NZ. Which is a pity, as I understand that per head of population the provincial regions provide a higher percentage of casual travellers filling premium seats … seats which subsidise Economy seats (look it up).
Another ‘fifth freedom quick hop across the ditch and back’ (at ADL’s expense) in the hope of generating a bit of ‘cream topping’ for the main sector. If it survives longer than 12 months it will probably be entirely due to Qatar’s funding ‘model’.
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