Qatar Airways will begin operating the Airbus A350-1000 aircraft on its Doha (DOH) to Manila (MNL) route starting March 30, 2025, according to a report by AeroRoutes. The change will specifically affect the daily QR-928/929 flight, replacing the currently operated Boeing 777-300ER.
While the A350-1000 is expected to slightly decrease overall seat capacity on the route, it will offer passengers a more modern cabin experience.
Qatar Airways’ Boeing 777-300ERs serving Manila are configured with 412 seats, arranged with 24 business class seats and 388 economy class seats. This represents the airline’s highest capacity configuration for its 777 fleet, based on its website.
Qatar Airways operates two configurations of the A350-1000. One configuration has 46 business class seats and 281 economy class seats, totaling 327 seats. The other has 24 business class seats and 371 economy class seats, totaling 395 seats.
Given that Qatar Airways is frequency-limited in Manila, the airline is likely to deploy the higher-capacity 395-seat variant to maximize capacity on the route. This would represent a net decrease of 17 seats in economy per flight.
Flight QR-928 is scheduled to depart Doha at 8:00 a.m., arriving in Manila at 10:20 p.m. The return flight, QR-929, will depart Manila at 11:50 p.m., arriving in Doha at 4:15 a.m. the following day. The airline will continue to operate its other daily Manila flights (QR-932/933, QR-934/935) with the Boeing 777-300ER.
While the A350-1000 has previously operated in Manila, this marks the first time it will be regularly scheduled on the Doha-Manila route.
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