Canberrans won't be able to fly direct to the Middle East when Qatar Airways launches its service from the capital to Doha in February 2018.

Instead, passengers will have to first fly to Sydney as part of the route, with a one-hour stopover before continuing on to Qatar.

It comes as the airline has unveiled more details about the flights ahead of their launch next year, which will be the second international route to fly out of Canberra Airport.

The flights will depart from Canberra at 1.45pm daily before reaching Sydney around 2.45pm.

From there, the Doha-bound flight would fly out of Sydney Airport at 3.55pm, arriving at 10.30pm.

The return flights will leave from Doha at 8.10am, arriving in Sydney at 6.15am the next day, before landing in Canberra at 8.25am.

The new route would see Qatar Airways double its services from Sydney to Doha.

Tickets are already on sale for the Qatar Airways route, although passengers won't be able to buy domestic tickets for the Canberra to Sydney route.

The Canberra to Sydney leg of the Qatar Airways route was first discussed in February this year, as a way to "mitigate the risk" of launching the airline in the nation's capital.

A decision wasn't to be made until bilateral talks concluded between Qatar and Australia.

Industry journal Aviation Week senior air transport editor Adrian Schofield previously told The Canberra Times the Canberra to Doha route could be a test for future international flights coming out of Canberra Airport.

"It's understandable that Qatar would want to minimise the risk on a Canberra flight, at least initially," he said.

"It's not a bad way to test the waters, then commit to a dedicated service."

The Qatar Airways route comes after Singapore Airlines became the first airline to operate international flights out of Canberra in September last year, flying to both Singapore and Wellington as part of the 'Capital Express' service.