Qatar Airways launches twice-weekly Doha-Bogotá-Caracas flights

Schedule and aircraft

Flight QR783 leaves Doha at 07:35 and lands at Bogotá El Dorado International Airport at 16:25 local time. It departs again at 17:55 and reaches Caracas Simón Bolívar International Airport at 21:00. The return leaves Caracas at 23:30 and arrives at Hamad International Airport at 20:35 the next day. The service runs on Wednesdays and Sundays with a Boeing 777-200LR, Qatar Airways said.

The aircraft used on the inaugural flight, registration A7-BBB, carries 272 passengers: 42 Qsuite business suites and 230 economy seats, according to Aviacionline. The airline said the timetable is built for connections at its Doha hub to Australia, China, Japan, Lebanon, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.

One restriction limits the local market. Qatar cannot sell tickets solely between Bogotá and Caracas, Business Traveller reported, so the Colombian-Venezuelan sector is not a standalone market.

Why the route stops in Bogotá

El Dorado sits more than 8,300 feet above sea level, and thin air limits how much weight an aircraft can lift. That rules out a nonstop return from Bogotá to Doha at full payload. Aviacionline reported that Emirates used the same argument when it routed its daily Bogotá flight through Miami.

The short hop to Caracas lets the aircraft refuel near sea level before the long sector back to the Gulf. The timetable is lopsided as a result. Business Traveller put the Doha to Caracas block time at 20 hours 25 minutes, including the 16-hour 50-minute sector to Bogotá and the ground stop, against 14 hours five minutes for the nonstop Caracas to Doha return.

Demand and competition

Bogotá gains its first nonstop link to the Middle East, Airdata News reported; Emirates has served the Colombian capital since June 2024 with a Boeing 777-300ER routed through Miami. Caracas gets the nonstop sector in the other direction, on the return to Doha.

Traffic on the corridor is thin. Simple Flying, citing OAG booking data for the 12 months to August 2026, estimated 137,000 round-trip passengers between Bogotá and Caracas and the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia and eastern and southern Africa, about 375 a day. Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Air France, KLM and Lufthansa share that traffic. Turkish Airlines flies nonstop from Istanbul to both capitals, a route it resumed on 1 October, Aviacionline reported.

The same Simple Flying report noted that Venezuela has more than 750,000 people of Lebanese citizenship or descent, which it said would probably make Beirut an important market.

Qatar has widened its codeshare with LATAM to include LATAM Airlines Colombia, placing its code on LATAM flights from Bogotá to 17 Colombian destinations including Medellín, Cartagena, Cali and San Andrés. Caracas and Bogotá are the airline's 16th and 17th destinations in the Americas, it said, extending a South American presence that began with São Paulo in 2010; earlier reports said 15th and 16th.

Aviacionline reported that the service also adds belly capacity for air cargo and supports Colombian exports to the Middle East. Business Traveller noted that Colombia's flower trade could contribute freight revenue, though it needs cold-chain handling and dependable connections.

Delays and the Caracas reopening

Qatar first announced the two capitals in January 2025. It set a 22 July 2026 start, moved it to 2 September and finally launched on 4 November, Aviacionline reported. Simple Flying attributed the delay to the war in Iran; Aviacionline linked the September postponement to the June earthquakes that damaged Caracas airport.

Caracas Simón Bolívar partially reopened on 1 September, when temporary passenger facilities in a parking lot allowed flights to resume after the June earthquakes damaged its infrastructure, Business Traveller reported.

In Bogotá the inaugural aircraft was received by Arnaud Penent D'Izarn of Colombia's civil aviation authority, Ángela Sofía Garzón Caicedo of the city's tourism institute and Natali Leal of airport operator Opain, Aviacionline reported. Qatar says it is serving more than 170 destinations this winter.