In keeping with Africa’s fast-growing aviation market, with the sector expected to be valued at $400 billion by 2040 and with annual increases in passenger traffic of 5.4%, Qatar Airways has announced that it will establish new routes and increase regularity on others.
To meet projected demand, this year the airline has added more flights on the Doha-Lusaka-Harare route and is now flying daily, up from three weekly services.
Cape Town has grown from 10 flights a week to double-daily. It will also commence daily flights to Accra from 25 March.
This follows an August 2022 increase in flights to Maputo from three to four a week, a few months before it marked a decade of flying to Mozambique. In June last year it resumed flights to Windhoek and the next month announced a codeshare with South African domestic and regional carrier, Airlink.
Elsewhere on the continent, the airline marks the first anniversary of its successful Kano and Port Harcourt services in March.
Just under a year ago it started the four weekly flights to Kano and three to Port Harcourt. Both operate via Abuja using one of the carrier’s most modern aircraft, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
These new services made Nigeria the airline’s most connected market in Africa, bolstering the double-daily schedule to Lagos and daily Abuja flights.
Combined, these new services now see the airline serving 29 destinations in Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands with 190 weekly flights.
“We were the only carrier to continue operating to Africa throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and its immediate aftermath. This has put us in a favourable position to grow our services across the continent as economies begin to expand again and more people start travelling,” says Hendrik du Preez, Qatar Aiways’ vice president for Africa.
“Africa, and particularly the continent’s middle class, will continue to show sustained growth over the next 20 years. In addition to increased business and leisure traffic, cargo demand will also rise. Qatar Airways, together with our partners on the continent, is well placed to serve this demand.”
