American and Qatar currently have the largest codeshare deal in the aviation industry, selling seats on each other's flights and placing their own flight number on routes operated by another airline.
The advantage of codesharing is clear: airlines can offer more flights to more destinations than would be possible on their own, and they also get to keep a portion of the revenue generated from ticket sales on flights operated by another airline.
The agreement between American Airlines and Qatar Airways has been so successful that about 18% of passengers arriving in America on flights from Doha “Qatar” continue to use American Airlines.
On the other hand, since American Airlines launched a direct flight from New York Kennedy Airport to Doha last June, more than 175,000 passengers have used Qatar Airways.
Among the most popular destinations for passengers flying transfers from AA flights to Qatar Airways flights to Lahore, Dhaka (the capital of Bangladesh), Kathmandu and Islamabad are destinations where American Airlines does not currently fly and most likely will not fly in the foreseeable future.
That comes out to about 530 passengers a day transferring from American Airlines to Qatar Airways. Naturally, not all of them are on direct AA flights, but it kind of demonstrates the business case for American complementing Qatar Airways with its own flight to Doha.
Such a scenario would have been unthinkable a few years ago . In 2017, American Airlines terminated its codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways after the Qatari flag carrier made a “reckless offer” to the airline. about buying 10%. The scandal led Qatar Airways to threaten to pull out of the Oneworld airline alliance.
American Airlines accused Qatar of destabilizing the US aviation industry, but in early 2020, the two sides suddenly announced that they had reconciled and were once again maintaining a strategic relationship.
American Airlines has realized that it is losing money and passengers who need a super partnership with Qatar Airways. The pandemic has only slightly slowed things down, and AA and Qatar Airways are now quite happy with the way things are going.