Qatar Airways Expands Services in Saudi Arabia with New Hail Route, Increases Flights to Jeddah and Riyadh
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, announced the expansion during his participation at the TOURISE Summit 2025 in Riyadh, highlighting the airline’s long-term commitment to the Saudi market
Effective 5 January 2026, the World’s Best Airline will serve 13 Saudi cities with more than 150 weekly flights and connect the Kingdom to over 170 destinations worldwide
DOHA, Qatar – Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, has announced another expansion of the airline’s service in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during his panel discussion, “Tourism Rising: A New Era of Influence and Impact”, at the TOURISE Summit 2025 in Riyadh.
From 5 January 2026, Qatar Airways will launch three weekly flights to Hail (HAS), making it the 13th Saudi city to be served by the airline. The World’s Best Airline, as voted by Skytrax in 2025 for the ninth time, will also increase flights to Jeddah (JED) and Riyadh (RUH) from six to seven daily flights.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, said: “At Qatar Airways, we are proud to see our presence continually grow in both scale and significance across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our network now spans every major region of the Kingdom, and over the past 12 months, we have connected nearly 2.5 million passengers in the Kingdom to our global network. This a reflection of the level of trust travellers in Saudi Arabia place in our airline and the excellence of our services across the Saudi market.”
This strategic expansion reinforces Qatar Airways’ continued growth and long-term commitment to the Saudi market, reflecting the airline’s focus on enhancing regional connectivity to meet strong passenger demand across business, leisure, and religious travel segments.
This development follows a strong year of operational growth for Qatar Airways in Saudi Arabia including the resumption of flights to Abha earlier this year, and the launch of services to The Red Sea in October, making the airline the first international carrier to connect The Red Sea to over 170 global destinations.
With Qatar Airways’ new route to Hail, the airline’s footprint in the Kingdom will expand to 13 destinations served with more than 150 weekly flights, providing travellers across Saudi Arabia with convenient access to over 170 global destinations through the airline’s Doha hub, Hamad International Airport, recognised by Skytrax as the Best Airport in the Middle East in 2025 for the 11th consecutive year, and World’s Best Airport in 2021, 2022, and 2024.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club members can make their trips more rewarding by collecting Avios on their flights as well as shopping and dining at Qatar Duty Free at Hamad International Airport. Members can spend their Avios on travel and lifestyle rewards of their choice including bidding on money-can’t-buy experiences with Privilege Club Collection.
Qatar Airways, a benchmark for excellence in the industry, remains a prominent leader in global connectivity and operates to over 170 destinations worldwide. Bookings can be made at: qatarairways.com or through the airline’s mobile application.
About Qatar Airways
A multiple award-winning airline, Qatar Airways won the ‘World’s Best Airline’ title for an unprecedented ninth time at the 2025 World Airline Awards, managed by the international air transport rating organisation, Skytrax. Qatar Airways was previously named the World’s Best Airline in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2024.
The airline continues to be synonymous with excellence, and has yet again received recognition for ‘World's Best Business Class’, and ‘World's Best Business Class Airline Lounge’. As the leading connector in the region, Qatar Airways has also been lauded with the ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’ title for the 13 time.
Qatar Airways currently flies to over 170 destinations worldwide, connecting through its Doha hub, Hamad International Airport, the ‘Best Airport in the Middle East’ for 11 consecutive years, as well as ‘World’s Best Airport Shopping’ for the third year in a row, as voted by Skytrax. Hamad International Airport has previously been named the ‘World’s Best Airport’ by Skytrax in 2021, 2022, and 2024.
Qatar Airways was the first airline in the Middle East to be certified to the highest level of IATA’s Environmental Assessment (IEnvA) programme, based on recognised environmental management system principles (such as ISO 14001). As an inaugural signatory to the Buckingham Palace Declaration in March 2016, Qatar Airways became the first airline globally to be certified to the industry standard for the prevention of illegal wildlife trafficking in aviation.
For further information, visit www.qatarairways.com or the Qatar Airways mobile app.
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