Qatar Airways has unveiled plans to expand its South Africa operations, with the launch of flights to Durban and increasing its weekly frequencies to Johannesburg.
The airline will also increase its weekly frequency to Cape Town going up from five flights a week to a daily service.
Effective from 17 December 2015, the airline will launch 4 new weekly flights to Durban via Johannesburg bringing the total frequency to Johannesburg up from 10 weekly flights to a double-daily service.
From 1 October 2015, Qatar Airways will be operating daily flights to Cape Town ahead of the busy 2015/16 winter travel season, an increase from five weekly flights this winter.
All three routes will be operated with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Qatar Airways’ Boeing 787 Dreamliner offers passengers 254 seats across its Business and Economy Class, with its seats in Business Class reclining to 180-degree fully flat beds.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Mr. Akbar Al Baker said, “At Qatar Airways we strive to provide our passengers with the best of service levels on ground and on board our modern fleet. We also provide our passengers with a strong global network of business and leisure destinations, and the city of Durban will be a welcome new addition to our extensive route map. Durban is an important gateway into South Africa and we are very confident that this route will be warmly welcomed like all our other routes in the African continent.”
Durban is the second most important manufacturing hub in South Africa after Johannesburg with the presence of a number of major multi-national companies. It is also famous for being the busiest port in the African continent, and one of the main centres of tourism because of its warm subtropical climate and extensive beaches.
Africa is key to Qatar Airways’ global network expansion strategy and the airline currently operates 140 flights per week to 19 African gateways. Since 2011 the airline has added the following African destinations to its global route network: Entebbe (Uganda); Kigali (Rwanda); Kilimanjaro (Tanzania); Maputo (Mozambique); Addis Ababa (Ethiopia); Djibouti International Airport (Djibouti) and Asmara (Eritrea).
