American Airlines, Qatar Airways Strategic Alliance: A Year Later

A Qatar Airways-painted Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on a test flight. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

[ Top Story ]June 21, 2023 10:09 pm ET

By Hemal Gosai

Last June, Qatar Airways and American Airlines announced a strategic partnership that allowed the latter’s passengers to book Qatar Airways flights from Doha to 16 new countries across Asia and Africa.

This was then shortly followed by a new route announcement from American Airlines: the airline would commence daily service to Doha’s Hamad International Airport, the hub of Qatar Airways. A year has passed since all of this and recently Qatar Airways shared a few details about the alliance in a press statement:

Codeshare Agreement

Qatar Airways and American Airlines claim to now have the largest codeshare relationship in the industry. Nearly 20 percent of Qatar Airways passengers arriving in the Americas have onward connections on American Airlines.

The American Airlines flight to Doha is also carrying a large number of passengers who are connecting onward on Qatar Airways at Doha. Over 175,000 passengers that flew on the American Airlines flight to Doha from June 2022 to April 2023 have connected on Qatar Airways to destinations such as Lahore, Dhaka, Kathmandu, and Islamabad.

An American Boeing 777-200 in Dallas/Fort Worth.
(Photo: AirlineGeeks | William Derrickson)

IT Enhancements

This alliance has also seen some IT improvements, too. As of last month, passengers can find and book American Airlines flights online using Avios on the Qatar Airways site.

Overall, the alliance makes sense for both airlines given the complementary nature of their networks. American Airlines likely cannot make flights to secondary cities across Asia work while Qatar Airways can through their hub in Doha. Similarly, Qatar Airways can’t fly to every secondary city in the U.S. Passengers who fly on Qatar Airways into hubs for American Airlines are able to easily connect to a multitude of domestic destinations that wouldn’t be feasible for a foreign carrier.

Qatar Airways already flies to most major airports in the United States. The airline is a key partner in the upcoming Formula 1 races that will be happening in the U.S. this fall. Given the codeshare agreement, Qatar Airways passengers are able to travel onward to several destinations on American Airlines aircraft that aren’t served directly by Qatar Airways.

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Hemal Gosai

Hemal took his first flight at four years old and has been an avgeek since then. When he isn't working as an analyst he's frequently found outside watching planes fly overhead or flying in them. His favorite plane is the 747-8i which Lufthansa thankfully flies to EWR allowing for some great spotting. He firmly believes that the best way to fly between JFK and BOS is via DFW and is always willing to go for that extra elite qualifying mile. Hemal's opinions are his own and do not reflect those of his employer.

Author

Hemal Gosai

Hemal took his first flight at four years old and has been an avgeek since then. When he isn't working as an analyst he's frequently found outside watching planes fly overhead or flying in them. His favorite plane is the 747-8i which Lufthansa thankfully flies to EWR allowing for some great spotting. He firmly believes that the best way to fly between JFK and BOS is via DFW and is always willing to go for that extra elite qualifying mile.
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