Qatar Airways reduces flights to this major US city by 30%

Qatar Airways will only serve san francisco Five times a week next summer. That offer will be applicable for the entire season. Its frequency has fallen from previously planned daily operations. This comes soon after Air India removed two ultra-long-haul routes to the Northern California city.

one world The reduction in member frequency is an interesting development. This means that it becomes its only US route with less than daily frequency and, therefore, is its new least-served city.

Qatar Airways cuts San Francisco flights

San Francisco has not been part of Qatar Airways’ network for a long time. flights from Doha The route itself launched in December 2020 amid the pandemic, a highly unusual time to launch this route. Since then, the frequency has almost always been daily.

Things will be different in 2026. From the end of March, when the northern carriers switch to a summer schedule based on the IATA slot season, only a five-weekly service will be available. In contrast, Cirium Diio data shows that daily flights were available all last summer. This also includes the extreme summer of 2021 affected by the pandemic.

Now flights will continue Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and SundayQR737 will depart Doha at 8:05 am and arrive in San Francisco at 1:35 pm local time (15 hours 30 minutes), In return, QR738 will depart at 5:55 pm and return at 7:25 pm local time (15 hours 30 minutes) the next day, It is specifically timed for connectivity to/from India,

As in previous years, the 327-seat airbus a350-1000 Use will continue. It is a lower-capacity but higher-premium configuration of the airline’s two A350-1000 layouts. It has 46 QSuites (1-2-1) and 281 economy seats (3-3-3; predominantly 31″ pitch).

San Francisco traffic and load were falling

Qatar Airways carried 18,791 round-trip San Francisco passengers, according to the US Department of Transportation July 2025Traffic declined by 3% or more compared to the same peak summer month in 2024, In comparison, its total US passenger volume declined 5% over the same period,

San Francisco’s seat load factor also dropped: from an exceptionally high 96% to a very strong 93%. As always, it’s about How Weighting was achieved, and should not be considered in isolation from other factors. In contrast, its total US weight increased modestly to more than 92%.

This appears to have impacted San Francisco’s performance, so frequency has been reduced to address this. Reduced capacity could reduce its competitiveness and market share, not least because Emirates serves San Francisco daily and many European operators have at least daily offerings. Lower capacity will help increase load and may increase yields, both of which are important for root performance.

For now, Qatar Airways is still planning daily service to San Francisco in winter 2026/2027. But if the five-weekly operation is extended, it will reflect happiness with the results of its summer experiment.

Qatar Airways now planning fewer peak summer US flights

Let’s focus on the peak summer month July 2026The above frequency reduction means that Qatar Airways plans to 103 weekly departure flights Doha to US (double fare both ways). Some 14 to 16 daily departures will be available.

This is the smallest US peak summer offering ever. Although hardly a huge decline, Cirium data shows it has fallen to 105 weekly one-way flights in July 2025. More notably, this is down from 118 weekly flights in July 2024, 112 in July 2023, 106 in July 2022 and 107 in July 2021.