Flights between Doha and Dubai are set to increase from six per day to 48 during this year’s World Cup.
The massive number of travellers during the competition will also see the Qatar capital’s airport break its record for most daily departures on 25 November, with 333 scheduled.
With a flight time between the two airports of just 1 hour, the increase in demand is being prompted by demand for a carrier service to ferry fans to and from their accommodation in Dubai to games in Qatar.
With hotel options in Qatar becoming completely exhausted, some fans are choosing to commute to and from games while staying in Dubai, where hotels are still available.
The ordinary Dubai-Doha route is operated exclusively from Dubai International airport, with three of the flights operated by Qatar Airways and three by flydubai.
Forty two of the expanded flights will be flying out of Dubai World Central rather than Dubai International due to its significantly higher available capacity, while Dubai International will continue with its usually six daily flights.
Flydubai will be responsible for up to 33 of the expanded daily flights, while Qatar Airways will operate up to 15 of the flights.
There is some variation in the aircraft that will fly this route, with the list including the A330-300, A330-200, B787-9, B787-8, B777-200LR and the B777-300ER. By far the most common plane that will be used on the route however will be the B737 MAX 8.
Not every day of the World Cup will see flights reach their peak of 48 daily. The first day of the Cup for instance is projected to see 40 flights on the route, which is still far beyond its usual numbers.
Daily flights will drop to below 30 at the beginning of December, stabilising at 20 daily flights until the end of the World Cup on 18 December.
