Qatar Airways set for Addis Ababa flights from September

QATAR AIRWAYS BOUND FOR ADDIS

(Posted 16^th July 2013)

Addis Ababa is to be Quatar Airways’ next African destination, with the launch scheduled for September 13^th this year. The award winning airline will initially fly three times a week between Doha and Addis, using a two class configuration Airbus A320 with 12 seats in business class and 132 seats in economy class.

The new route will bring Qatar Airways’ African destinations to 20 overall.

Akbar Al Baker, the CEO of QR, in a media release just received was quoted as saying: ‘Ethiopia is fast emerging as a growing economic centre, forming strong trade links with Europe, USA and Asia Pacific. As a route, the country has great potential when linked up with key markets in Europe, Americas and other parts of the world.  We are pleased to be reinforcing our presence in Africa with the addition of scheduled flights to Addis Ababa, allowing us to further expand our business on the African continent. Ethiopia is known for its thriving industries including coffee production, agricultural commodity exports and livestock production. There is clearly demand and huge potential to and from Ethiopia, one of the many underserved markets across Africa. As a global network carrier we are able to fulfill the needs of the travelling public from such markets and for those wanting to travel there from destinations that we serve around the world’.

In the wider Eastern African region Qatar Airways already serves Entebbe in conjunction with Kigali on a daily basis and flies twice a day to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in conjunction with Kilimanjaro. More destinations for the region are being planned and QR has in the past been looking at Mombasa and Zanzibar with traffic right issues however leaving Mombasa at least off the Qatar Airways map until now.

The airline was launch customer for the Boeing B787 Dreamliner in the Gulf region and is in due course expecting delivery of their first Airbus A380. Later this year the hub of Qatar Airways will move to a new mega airport, where the already award winning ground facilities are expected to provide yet another level of comfort to transit passengers flying with QR into the Gulf region, Europe, the Americas and the Far and South East. Watch this space for regular and breaking news from Eastern Africa’s vibrant aviation scene.