Qatar Airways is growing their fleet and at the same time adding exciting new routes to its offering, including direct flights between Doha and Windhoek. These will commence in September 2016.

This announcement was made by Qatar Airways’ Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, at the ITB (Internationale Tourismus-Börse), which is the world’s largest international travel fair. The ITB was held in Berlin from March 9 to March 13 this year.

Africa has been the focus of Qatar’s growth plan for the next two years, with six new African routes added to the fray.  The Windhoek route is first on the cards, to be followed by flights between:

• Doha and Marrakech, Morocco in July
• Doha and Seychelles in December

Additional flights planned for 2017 include a non-stop service between Doha and Doula, Cameroon, and Libreville, Gabon, from January, as well as flights to Lusaka from mid-2017.

According to Al Baker, “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.”

Likewise, Namibia looks forward to welcoming more visitors to this unique country. It would seem likely that these additional flights will be great news for Windhoek accommodation, which will most likely serve as an overnight stop before tourists head off to other wildlife and adventure destinations throughout the country, such as Swakopmund and Etosha National Park.

The Qatar Airways’ hub, Hamad International Airport, is one of the most technologically advanced airports worldwide and serves over 28 million passengers annually.  It is hoped that these new destinations will add to that in order to meet the target of 50 million travellers by 2018 – more good news for Namibian tourism.

Operating one of the youngest fleets of aircraft in the world, with the average age of aircraft being just 4 years, Qatar airlines is in its 19th year of operation. With a fleet of 179 aircraft, which it adds to approximately every 10 days, it is one of the fastest growing airlines internationally. It is encouraging to see that Windhoek is among the first African destinations selected for a weekly service by this prestigious operation.

Flights to Windhoek will run four times a week, giving a substantial amount of new and returning tourists and businessmen easy access to this burgeoning African destination.