Next week Qatar Airways will inaugurate flights to the Libyan port city of Benghazi and the Ugandan capital Entebbe as its dramatic network expansion continues. These will be its 13th and 14th new destinations of 2011 and will not be its last of the year with flights to Chongqing in China due to follow before the end of November.
The airline will launch flights from its Doha International Airport base to Benghazi from November 1 using a dual-class Airbus A320 offering 12 seats in First Class and 132 in Economy. It will offer four flights per week and hopes to take advantage of the demand from the many industries including oil refining, food processing, cement production and tuna fishing, which reside in the surrounding region of Cyrenaica, of which Benghazi is the capital.
The airline has a well-established presence in Libya, having initially operated services to the capital Tripoli eight years ago. An estimated 20,000 O&D passengers flew with Qatar Airways to or from Libya in the past year a figure that has obviously been impacted by the suspension of its flights to Tripoli due to the political instability in the country. The airline says these flights are expected to resume soon.
“Qatar Airways continues to strive to provide a network to cater for all travel segments, conveniently connecting through our Doha hub,” said Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways. “We identified Benghazi as an underserved, primarily business destination, and now have the opportunity to bring this city into our fold.”
On November 2, Qatar Airways will inaugurate flights between Doha and Entebbe, a route that will see an interesting battle with its fellow Middle Eastern carrier Emirates Airline. Both operators work on a hub-and-spoke business model and will focus not only on O&D traffic but transfer traffic via hubs at Dubai and Doha international airports.
Emirates has the advantage of already being established in the Ugandan market, but its flights currently route via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to support the use of a widebodied jet. Qatar Airways, meanwhile, will utilise a smaller A320 on its daily service on a non-stop basis, significantly reducing flight times to Doha and onward across its global network.
Entebbe will be Qatar Airways’ first new route launch to Africa since early 2007 and the airline believes that despite Uganda fast emerging as a regional trading centre with links to Europe and the Far East, it has limited international air services.
Alongside the strong business traffic, Qatar Airways is positioning Entebbe is the gateway to an up-until-now untapped niche leisure region of Uganda which offers breathtaking scenery featuring colonial gardens, parks and its most famous attraction, Lake Victoria.
“We are pleased to be reinforcing our presence in Africa, four years after our last move there when we launched flights to Tanzania’s capital city of Dar es Salaam,” said Akbar Al Baker. “Adding Entebbe provides us with another foothold deeper into the African continent. We are confident our new route will be as successful as others being planned over the next few months around the world.”
Qatar Airways’ growth will continue from November 28 when it adds flights to Chongqing, its fifth gateway in China, while the carrier has already outlined its first route launches of 2012 with proposed flights to Baku and Tbilisi due to commence on February 1, 2012.
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