Qatar Airways in Uganda: Five years and counting

Time flies, especially in the aviation industry, where flying is the order of the day.

Five years ago, Qatar Airways commenced daily passenger flights from Doha to Entebbe, and on to Kigali, using Airbus A320 aircraft on the route. In addition there is the route, served with an Airbus A330F, which presently operates a dedicated cargo service three times a week.

At the time, in 2011, the airline’s new hub – Hamad International Airport, was in the early stages of construction. Since then, HIA has been completed and became one of the world’s leading hub airports, with over 30 million passengers handled last year already. Qatar Airways itself too has grown in leaps and bounds, today flying to some 150 destinations worldwide with a fleet of now 191 aircraft in service, a number however rising rapidly, as orders worth around $90 billion are pending, and more planes are delivered every month.

About a dozen Ugandan journalists were invited for a lunch briefing at the Kampala Serena’s Pearl Restaurant and QR’s Uganda Commercial Manager Donald Ajuoga and Doha-based Gayathri Pradeep, QR’s Senior Media Relations Officer / Corporate Communications attended the meeting.

Qatar Airways’ Senior Vice President for Africa, Middle East and Pakistan, Mr. Ehab Amin sent the following message for the event: ‘Qatar Airways is delighted to be celebrating five years of successful operations from Uganda, giving the airline the ability to meet growing demand in bringing tourists and business travelers to this vibrant region in Africa. Qatar Airways has enjoyed great success in its operations in Uganda, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their continued support, loyalty and appreciation of our award winning services. We are honoured to continue serving the Ugandan market, building strong relationships with our business partners for the long terms and we look forward to working and growing together over the coming years and beyond’.

In the immediate Eastern African regions, Qatar Airways flies to Entebbe, Kigali, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar, while also serving Addis Ababa, Asmara and Djibouti in the wider region.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, Hon. Najib Balala, during the recently concluded Magical Kenya Travel Expo, also hinted that Qatar Airways would be granted traffic rights to commence flights to Mombasa.