Qatar Airways will more than double its South American presence with two brand-new cities— Bogotá and Caracas —joining its map. It currently flies to São Paulo, although it flew to Buenos Aires (via São Paulo) until 2020. The announcement of the Colombian and Venezuelan capitals came a month after the one world carrier applied for permission to begin service.
Qatar Airways to Bogotá and Caracas The airline will operate Doha-Bogotá-Caracas-Doha aboard the 276-seat Boeing 777-200LR. In an unusual move for the carrier, it will be served twice-weekly , perhaps indicating this development's political nature. The schedule is currently unknown.
It comes soon after Emirates launched a daily Dubai-Miami-Bogota service. The stop in Venezuela en route to Doha will help overcome Bogotá's high elevation, significantly impacting take-off performance on such long trips, especially with a heavy payload. The stop en route to Caracas might help with the safety situation in Venezuela, where airline crews often avoid staying.
Qatar Airways may schedule more crew so that it can fly Bogotá-Caracas-Doha in one go. As discussed later, the Doha-Bogotá segment will become Qatar Airways' third-longest non-stop service . It will also be the first time Colombia has had non-stop flights from the Middle East (but not to it) .
While Venezuela has had Conviasa flights to Damascus and Tehran and Iran Air flew to Caracas in 2007, the country has never had Middle Eastern service by a major g.