Qatar Airways and Philippine Airlines Join Forces on Doha Manila Route

Flights between the middle east and the Philippines can be extremely lucrative, however competition is fierce. The Filipino expat community is among the largest in the region with additional travelers only transiting the region on the way back to the homeland to visit friends and family. The latest news regarding flights between Manila and the middle east involves the national carriers Qatar Airways and Philippine Airlines.

Qatar Airways – Philippine Airlines Codeshare on Manila Doha Route

The route from Doha to Manila is by no means underserved. Between PAL and Qatar Airways there are currently 23 weekly flights connecting the two capitals. That is big number, also consider there are just as many out of nearby Dubai and a good number from Abu Dhabi too.

However, that number is only destined to increase as Qatar Airways and Philippine Airlines enter their latest partnership. The deal is a codeshare with a few annotations to be made. Along with co-selling tickets, Philippine Airlines, which operates this specific flight (PR684), will be upping the frequency from 5x weekly to daily.

This will all become effective on June 16th, 2025, with weekly flights from thereafter jumping up to 25 weekly services. The codeshare will enable Philippine Airlines passengers traveling on the Manila to Doha route to access seamless connections to a vast number of Qatar Airways served destinations. Likewise Qatar Airways travelers will have access to the capillary PAL domestic network.

PR684 Also Changes Its Timing But Not Its Aircraft

Another change which will take effect regards the timing of the flight. It will be shifted to have later arrival and departure times in Doha. The reason is quite clearly to allow better, faster, transits onto Qatar Airways flights (aff.) departing after midnight from Hamad International Airport. The change will see Philippine Airlines flight PR684 operate daily:

• PR684: Departs Manila (MNL) at 18:50, arriving in Doha (DOH) at 23:40.
• PR685: Departs Doha (DOH) at 01:30, arriving in Manila (MNL) at 16:15.

What won’t change, unfortunately, is the aircraft type which will continue to be the Airbus A330-300. These are some of the older planes in the Philippine Airlines fleet and feature a very dense 2-class configuration with:

• 18 Business Class Flat-Bed Seats (in a 2-2-2 layout)
• 341 Economy Class Seats (in a 3-3-3 layout)

Those are both not particularly fancy or comfortable layouts. In business class, it means that 2 passengers per row don’t have direct aisle access, while in economy it means that there is one more seat per row than we usually find on A330s with the standard 2-4-2 layout.