South African-born Hendrik Du Preez talks about the potential for Qatar Airways in Africa. Thanks to the end of the blockade, many more opportunities are possible.
To date, passenger traffic between the major cities of Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, which have a combined population of over eight million people, has been limited by high air fares which we believe, have excluded large parts of the local population from air travel. The only alternative to flying is to undertake a long and difficult journey by road, which can take up to 12 hours.
The new fastJet service will not only support local demand to/from Dar es Salaam but also provide new connection opportunities to the low-cost carrier’s international flights into Tanzania, significantly offering an alternate link to Johannesburg to support growing leisure demand from South African holidaymakers.
Qatar Airways will initially operate five weekly flights to Zanzibar via Kilimanjaro, and commencing October 1, 2015, the airline will offer an additional two weekly flights making it a daily operation. Out of the daily flights from October, passengers will be able to fly non-stop to Zanzibar three-times-a-week and on a linked flight via Kilimanjaro four-times-a-week.
The mystic spice island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean will take the total number of destinations in the airline’s African network to 20 cities. The new destination is a popular island holiday spot for leisure travellers with its white sandy beaches, abundant wild life, rich culture and long history.
The carrier’s entry into Tanzania is no real surprise as the country is a regional hub for tourism in East Africa and in 2013 the country welcomed over one million tourists. According to the Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB), this figure looks set with to double with two million tourists forecast by 2017.
