Qatar Airways spreads its wings in East Africa with more flights

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTN) – Taking advantage of business growth and fast-growing tourism in Tanzania and East Africa, Qatar Airways has increased its flights in the East African region with additi

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTN) – Taking advantage of business growth and fast-growing tourism in Tanzania and East Africa, Qatar Airways has increased its flights in the East African region with additional flights across the two capital cities of Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in Tanzania and Kenya, respectively.

As part of the Doha-based airline’s growth strategy, Tanzania and Kenya have been marked strategic destinations in Africa with a step to increase its frequency on existing routes to 12 flights per week, which is a strong lever to facilitate growth in the business and tourism sectors in this part of Africa.

The Dar es Salaam route has performed exceptionally well since its launching in January 2007, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said.

Dar es Salaam, on the pristine beaches on the shores of the Indian Ocean, is currently served daily and has already received an additional four flights a week from January 2, this year. An additional flight will commence from February 14 to make its flight frequency up to 12 weekly services.

On the other hand, the daily Nairobi-Doha flights have increased to 12 flights a week. From January 3, an additional two flights will take capacity up to double daily. The expansion comes after five successful years of operations to Kenya’s capital city.

“We have been serving Nairobi since November 2005, and this has proved one of our biggest success stories in Africa, so we are extremely pleased to be offering our passengers even more choice with additional frequency going to double daily,” Al Baker added.

Both routes are operated with an A320 aircraft, featuring 12 seats in Business Class and 132 Economy seats.

The African subcontinent is one of Qatar Airways’ largest markets by the number of destinations served, and the region alone makes up over ten percent of the airline’s international network.

The award-winning, Doha-based airline currently flies to 14 cities across Africa, including Alexandria, Algiers, Cairo, Luxor, Casablanca, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Lagos, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Seychelles, Tripoli, and Tunis.

From each of these cities, the airline offers convenient connections via its Doha hub to many points on the airline’s network covering Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, and North and South America.

“We are pleased to introduce additional capacity to Africa and offer the traveling public greater options for air travel to and from the region,” said the CEO.

The airline currently operates a modern fleet of 93 aircraft to 95 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North and South America. The latest addition was the French Mediterranean city of Nice in November last year.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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