First Qatar Airways and Saudi Airlines planes land in Riyadh and Doha for the first time in over three years

UPDATE: January 11, 2021 9:04 PM

Qatar Airways today resumed flights to Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a daily service. QR1164 from Hamad International Airport to King Khalid International Airport took off in Doha at 13:45 local time and landed safely at its destination at 15:10. The flight was operated by Qatar Airways’ Airbus A350-1000.

Later this week, Qatar Airways will resume flights to Jeddah on Friday 15 January (QR1188 departing DOH at 18:50) and to Dammam on Saturday 16 January (QR 1150 departing Doha at 17:10).

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Qatar Airways has announced the resumption of its flights to Saudi Arabia today with the first flight having already left Hamad International Airport en route to the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Qatar Airways will operate flights daily to the Saudi capital, according to the Al-Sharq newspaper.

A while ago, Qatar Airways posted the following on its Twitter Page:

On Saturday evening, Qatar Airways announced its intention to resume its flights to Saudi Arabia, starting with flights to Riyadh, on Monday, 11 January 2021.

Qatar’s national carrier added that Qatar Airways would also resume its flights to Jeddah on Thursday 14 January 2021, followed by its flights to Dammam on Saturday 16 January 2021, noting that all Qatar Airways flights to Saudi Arabia would be operated exclusively on the carrier’s wide-body aircraft, including its Boeing aircraft. 777-300, Boeing 8-787 and Airbus A350s.

Qatar Airways also indicated that it would start operating its flights with a daily trip to Riyadh, four weekly flights to Jeddah, and a daily trip to Dammam.

UPDATE: January 11, 2021 5:00 PM

The first Saudi Airlines to land in Qatar since the blockade has departed Riyadh, inbound to Doha according to Gazanfarulla Khan (@acepilotkhan) on Twitter.

UPDATE: January 11, 2021 11:16 PM

Qatar Airways posted an update saying that the first Saudi Airlines arrived at Hamad International Airport Monday evening