Qatar’s national flag carrier, Qatar Airways, has announced a further expansion in its services to and from Africa. It will be adding three more flights a week to the route between its hub, Doha, and the Ugandan capital of Entebbe, to cope with northern summer demand. This will increase the frequency of flights between the two capital cities to 11 a week. The extra flights will start on August 1 and continue until September 30.

“The increased frequency now guarantees improved connectivity for passengers travelling from Uganda to the USA, Asia, Europe and North Africa,” highlighted Qatar Airways VP Africa Hendrik du Preez. “It also supports the growth of trade and tourism between Uganda and Qatar while offering convenience for point-to-point passengers to save a day’s travel due to the early arrival in Doha. With 18% of the world’s population and making up less than 2% of air transport activity, Africa is an untapped market with increasing travel and business opportunities. We are expanding connectivity throughout the continent by increasing the number of destinations we serve, and the frequencies we offer, and through partnerships with African airlines.”

The increase in the frequency of flights to Entebbe has followed the recent inauguration of a new African service by the carrier, to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Kinshasa service is operated four times a week, and it also increases capacity on the pre-existing service to the Angolan capital of Luanda, as well as increasing the frequency of Luanda flights from one a week to four a week.

Since December 2020, the airline has added Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Abuja (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), Harare (Zimbabwe), Kano (Nigeria), Lusaka (Zambia), Port Harcourt (Nigeria), as well as Kinshasa and Luanda, to its pre-existing network across sub-Saharan Africa. That pre-existing network includes Cape Town (South Africa), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Johannesburg (South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi (Kenya) and Zanzibar (Tanzania).

Across the entire continent of Africa, the airline now serves more than 30 destinations with 180 flights each week. However, Qatar also has codeshare agreements with five African airlines, and these agreements allow the Middle Eastern carrier to sell tickets to more than 900 flights across Africa each week. The past 12 months has also seen Qatar optimise its schedule in most of its African markets, in order to improve connectivity, via its Doha hub, to China, Europe and South Asia. In total, the airline serves more than 170 destinations across the world.

“According to [the International Air Transport Association], Africa’s passenger traffic is forecast to nearly double by 2035 and will exceed 263-million passengers, up from 134-million carried in 2022,” pointed out Du Preez. “Qatar Airways’ rapid expansion in the continent, the partnerships it has secured, and its continued pursuit of opportunities position it well to contribute to this growth.”