Qatar Airways cuts Joburg stop, offers direct flights to Mozambique

Qatar Airways will upgrade its three times weekly service between Doha and Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, from 27 March this year.

The airline currently serves the Doha – Maputo route three times a week via South Africa’s Johannesburg, but the new direct flight will de-link Joburg flights and cut five hours of travel time for Maputo-destined travellers.

The airline will serve the new direct route with a B787 Dreamliner aircraft.

In December last year, Qatar Airways inaugurated a new Durban – Doha route, as part of an expansion of the airline’s operations and decade-long investment in South Africa.

This route operates four-times-weekly flights between the two cities, with a total of 21 flights a week now connecting South Africa to Qatar Airways’ global network.

For the upgrade of the Doha – Maputo route, the airline hopes that the new non-stop service to Maputo International Airport will ease passengers from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, who will now make one stop less en route to their destination in Mozambique.

The Doha – Maputo schedule starting from 27 March 2016 is as follows:

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays
Depart Doha QR1361 at 06:30, arrive Maputo at 13:40
Depart Maputo QR1362 at 15:05, arrive Doha at 00:10 next day

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker says the route change is a “vote of confidence in the Mozambican travel market”.

He says over the three years that the airline has served the Mozambican capital, they have “seen a consistent increase in demand in travel”, which has now resulted in the upgrade of the Maputo-Doha flights.

Qatar Airways will serve Maputo with its state-of-the-art B787 Dreamliner aircraft, the same model used to serve all destinations in Southern Africa – Johannesburg, Cape Town, and also the newly added Durban route.

The aircraft features 254 seats in a two-class configuration of 22 seats in Business Class and 232 in Economy, and also features the airline’s award-winning entertainment system offering a fully interactive audio and video system of up to 2 000 programmes.

Source: Traveller24