Qatar Airways to Raise Maldives Flights to 21 a Week

Qatar Airways will increase flights to Malé from 12 to 21 a week from 25 October, adding nine weekly services to the Maldives for its winter schedule.

The increase, announced on 10 September, amounts to a 75 per cent rise in flight frequency. The airline says bookings are available through its website and mobile app.

The 2026–27 winter schedule places the Maldives among several destinations receiving additional services through Qatar Airways' Doha hub.

The airline will also increase London Heathrow services from 49 to 56 a week from 25 October. Frankfurt services are scheduled to rise from 18 to 21 a week from 7 December.

The London increase is scheduled for the same day as the Malé expansion. Qatar Airways' winter announcement also identifies British Airways' daily London–Doha flight as a codeshare service between the two capitals.

Elsewhere, the carrier plans to restore daily Canberra flights via Melbourne from 9 December. Its own Melbourne schedule will increase from seven to 14 weekly flights on the same date. These services connect through Doha within the airline's international network.

Qatar Airways says its winter network will cover more than 170 destinations. The Malé increase is a flight-frequency announcement; the release does not give a separate seat total for the route.

Tourism marketing agreement

The capacity increase follows a new agreement between the airline and Visit Maldives Corporation to promote the destination in international markets.

Visit Maldives announced the memorandum on 15 September. It was signed at Arabian Travel Market by the corporation's chief executive and managing director, Abdulla Yasir, and Qatar Airways vice president for Africa and global leisure sales, Hendrik Abraham Du Preez.

The agreement covers destination promotion in markets selected by the two organisations. Planned activities include familiarisation initiatives, engagement with travel sellers and joint marketing across the airline's network.

Visit Maldives said the cooperation would run alongside the additional airline capacity from October. Yasir said the partnership was intended to reach new audiences and strengthen contact with the travel trade.

State Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Abdulla Niyaz and Visit Maldives chairman Abdulla Ghiyas Riyaz attended the signing. The tourism corporation's announcement does not give a spending commitment for the campaign.

Onward domestic flights

Qatar Airways also has an interline partnership with Maldivian, allowing passengers to combine the airlines' flights on one ticket.

The airline's partnership page describes access to Maldivian's network of 17 domestic airports. Passengers connect through Malé for the domestic portion of those itineraries.

That arrangement concerns onward travel within the Maldives. The winter announcement increases Qatar Airways' own services to Malé, the international gateway for those connections.

The carrier and Visit Maldives have worked together on destination promotion before. A July 2021 partnership announcement set out joint marketing across key international markets to support travel to the Maldives.

The September 2026 memorandum adds a new cooperation framework for destination marketing and travel trade activity. The additional Malé services are scheduled to begin on 25 October.