Executive Traveller exclusive
Qatar Airways will extend its daily Doha-Melbourne and Doha-Brisbane flights to Auckland, in a move to carve out its own slice of the 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.
Click here for the details of Qatar Airways’ Brisbane-Auckland flights, which take wing in June 2027, and read on for more on the Melbourne-Auckland flights starting in December 2026.
Qatar Airways locks in Melbourne–Auckland flights
The Qatar Airways website shows these new Melbourne-Auckland flights beginning on Thursday 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 headed to Auckland rather than any onwards flight 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.
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.
Of course, these Boeing 777s are a definite upgrade from the Boeing 737s of Qantas, with their domestic-grade business class recliners, and are also superior to Air New Zealand’s Boeing 777 and 787 experience.
Making the deal even sweeter, Qatar Airways’ airfares are on par with Qantas and AirNZ, starting from around $1,300 in business class and $550 in economy.
Enjoy true international-grade business class service on this quick trans-Tasman hop.
To accomodate 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.
Qatar Airways currently flies an Adelaide-Auckland leg on the back of its Doha-Adelaide service, but this is being dropped in favour of Melbourne-Auckland.
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.