Qatar Airways has announced a major expansion in South Africa with the launch of a new destination, Durban, while simultaneously increasing its weekly frequencies to Johannesburg. The airline will also increase its weekly frequency to Cape Town, going up from five flights a week to a daily service.
Effective from 17 December 2015, the airline will launch four new weekly flights to Durban via Johannesburg bringing the total frequency to Johannesburg up from 10 weekly flights to a double-daily service. From 1 October 2015, Qatar Airways will be operating daily flights to Cape Town ahead of the busy 2015/16 winter travel season, an increase from five weekly flights this winter.
Durban will be Qatar Airways’ third route to South Africa following Johannesburg and Cape Town, both of which started in January 2005. All three routes will be operated with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Akbar Al Baker, Group Chief Executive, Qatar Airways said the airline’s new home at the state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport in Doha will offer rapid and convenient connections for passengers from South Africa.
“At Qatar Airways we strive to provide our passengers with the best of service levels on ground and on board our modern fleet. We also provide our passengers with a strong global network of business and leisure destinations, and the city of Durban will be a welcome new addition to our extensive route map. Durban is an important gateway into South Africa and we are very confident that this route will be warmly welcomed like all our other routes in the African continent,” he concluded.
