www.allAfrica.com Qatar Airways will launch flights from Doha to Nairobi this year. The airline's marketing and communications manager, Ms Salam Al-Shawa, said Nairobi is part of the airline's strategic routes in Africa.
"We are considering Nairobi - it is a very important destination from the Middle East. There is a strong indication that Nairobi is bound to be one of new African destinations, but the official launch date will be announced later," she said.
Qatar is already flying to Cairo, Khartoum, Casablanca, as well as Tripoli. Early this year, it opened the Johannesburg and Cape Town routes with four flights a week, while new flights to Tunis and Algiers commence on May 2, 2005.
With 3,000 employees and still looking for more, Qatar is one of the fastest growing airlines, operating one of the newest fleets in the world. Its fleet includes 39 Airbus aircraft of different types. It is a waiting the delivery of 33 planes - including four Airbus A380-800s.
According to Mr Khaled Chergui, of Eithad Airlines office in Munich, Germany,
Nairobi is becoming a favourite destination from the Middle East and the carrier is targetting the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as an entry point into East Africa.
Although Eithad will also start flying to Nairobi shortly, it is facing a shortage of aircraft due to high demand by passengers flying from Europe via Abu Dhabi to the Far East.
Cairo is the base for Eithad Airline's thrust into Africa while Geneva is its main base for Europe. The Abu Dhabi hub is the airline's head office and base for Middle East operations while Bangkok is being used as a hub for Asia.
The two Middle East carriers will compete with Emirates Airlines and Kenya Airways. Both airlines dominate the route. Chergui said airfares to Nairobi are likely to drop if new carriers enter the route. African tourism destinations were in focus at the ITB mainly because South East Asia is yet to rebuild many hotels destroyed by the Tsunami last December. |