Windhoek
Qatar Airways will from September 28 have four weekly direct flights between Windhoek and Doha, Qatar’s state airline announced this week.
The route between Windhoek and Doha is part of the airline’s network expansion of 14 new world destinations revealed by Qatar Airways’ Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, on the opening day of ITB Berlin (Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin) – the world’s largest international travel fair.
The event, currently taking place in Berlin, Germany opened on March 9 and ends on March 13.
The Windhoek flight is one of the six new African routes that Qatar Airways will begin to service this year. Other African routes are between Doha and Marrakech in Morocco that will begin in July three times per week, the resumption of a daily scheduled service to the Seychelles as from December 12, and as of January 2017 three flights per week from Doha to Douala in Cameroon, and Libreville in Gabon utilising one aircraft. There will also be a non-stop service three times weekly from Doha to Lusaka in Zambia from mid-2017.
Spread across four continents, the new routes will include what will be the world’s longest daily flight service, between Doha and Auckland, New Zealand. The service will begin on December 3 and Qatar Airways will use the Boeing 777 aircraft for the route.
Qatar Airways, the national carrier of the State of Qatar, is one of the fastest growing airlines operating one of the youngest fleets in the world. Now in its 19th year of operations, Qatar Airways has a modern fleet of 179 aircraft.
“Qatar Airways prides itself on being a global connector, and most importantly, providing seamless and convenient connections for our customers so that we remain their airline of choice. These new destinations are where our customers want to go, and where we see the most opportunity to provide a best-in-class experience at great value. We look forward to growing our network and welcoming new passengers to Qatar Airways,” said Al Baker in a statement issued by the airline.
The routes include five new European destinations for Qatar Airways such as to the Italian city of Pisa, starting on August 2 with a daily non-stop service from Doha. This will be the fourth Italian destination for Qatar Airways, joining Venice, Rome and Milan. Then there is the service to Sarajevo in Bosnia that will start on September 7, with three flights per week.
There will also be non-stop flights from Doha to Helsinki in Finland, a three times weekly service between Doha and Skopje in Macedonia, and the return of flight service to Nice in France.
The introduction of the new destinations comes two years after the opening of Qatar Airways’ hub, Hamad International Airport. The airport, one of the most technologically advanced modern airports in the world, serves more than 28 million passengers annually – and is set to grow up to 50 million in 2018.
The addition of new routes has also consistently taken place in parallel with the growth plans of the Qatar Airways fleet.
As the global launch customer of the Airbus A350 and the Middle East launch customer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, introducing next-generation aircraft is of key importance to the overall growth strategy. On average, the airline receives a new aircraft once every 10 days, and the average age of the fleet is less than four years.