The Philippines’ Queen City of the South is one of three new destinations that have been introduced despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than eight years after terminating the route, Qatar Airways is restarting passenger services between Doha and the Philippines’ second city. The leading Gulf carrier last operated direct flights to Cebu in March 2012; starting today, it will deploy Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on a thrice-weekly basis.

The outbound flights will depart Hamad International Airport at 1:45 a.m. on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, with a scheduled arrival in Cebu at 4:45 p.m. local time after 10 hours in the air. Following a turnaround time of 90 minutes, the Boeing 777-300ER will leave Mactan-Cebu International Airport at 6:15 p.m. and arrive back in Doha at 11 p.m. the same evening. The return journey will take approximately nine hours and 45 minutes. With the relaunch of regular services to Cebu, Qatar Airways’ network in the Philippines has now expanded to 13 weekly flights. Nine of those are bound for Manila, while one is flown to Clark.

Cebu joins Brisbane and Toronto as one of three new Qatar Airways destinations that have been introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even at the height of the international travel shutdown in April, the airline’s global network did not fall below 30 routes from Doha. The Gulf carrier is aiming to operate more than 450 weekly flights to over 70 destinations, including Cebu, by the end of this month.

Prospective travelers will be glad to know that Qatar Airways’ flexible booking policies are perhaps the most generous of any major global airline. The carrier is allowing unlimited date changes for travel until December 31, 2020, and passengers can change their routing to any airport served by Qatar Airways within 5,000 miles of the original destination as often as needed; no fare differences will be charged. All tickets booked for travel until December 31 will also be valid for two years from the date of issue.

More information here.