Qatar Airways will soon announce an investment in an airline in southern Africa, its CEO said on Wednesday, part of the Gulf carrier’s drive to expand its network in Africa.
An announcement of the deal could be made in the next two to
three weeks, Qatar Airways' chief executive Badr Al Meer said at the Qatar
Economic Forum in Doha on Wednesday.
“We are in the final stage of an equity investment in an
airline in the southern part of Africa," he said.
Mr Al Meer, who took over the helm in November, said
southern Africa is "the last piece in the equation" of the airline's
ambitions to serve the whole continent.
While Mr Al Meer did not identify the target of Qatar
Airways' equity stake investment, he said southern Africa has just two or three
airlines to pick from.
"This airline will complement the operation of Kigali
as a hub and the operation of RwandAir as the airline that connects the West,
east, north of Africa to the airline we're finalising the investment in."
State-owned Qatar Airways flies to more than 30 destinations
in Africa. The Doha-based airline also has plans to buy a 49 per cent stake in
the East African airline RwandAir.
In 2019, Qatar Airways also took a 60 per cent share in the
$1.3 billion new Bugesera International Airport, located south-east of the
Rwandan capital Kigali.
The new airport is expected to be operational by 2027 or
2028, Yvonne Makolo, chief executive of RwandAir, said during the same panel.
Construction packages will be awarded next month or by July
at the latest, Mr Al Meer said.
Qatar Airways chief executive, Badr Mohammed al-Meer
(centre) and the chief executive of RwandAir, Yvonne Makolo (right), in a panel
discussion at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. AFP
Africa has a population of 1.4 billion people but currently
only carries 2 per cent of the global traffic, making it an underserved market
with major opportunities for African and international airlines to tap into the
air travel demand, Ms Makolo said.
The new hub could rival Addis Ababa, the home base of
Africa's biggest carrier Ethiopian Airlines.
"Addis is already a huge hub but I think Kigali will be
alternative regional hub, especially given the geographical position of Rwanda,
right at the heart of Africa, which gives us access to all the points –north,
south, east, west – so we're very strategically positioned," she said.
"There's potential to grow it to compete with the other
regional hubs but we're starting small and we'll continue growing it because
... the potential in the continent is immense."
RwandAir flies to Doha six times a week and its extended
codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways allows it to tap into more than 70
routes within the Doha-based airline's network.
"The way to go is through partnerships, whether between
African airlines, and also African airlines with other international
airlines," Ms Makolo said.
"It is a huge continent, 54 countries that we need to
connect, and no one airline can do that on their own."
Qatar Airways 2.0
Mr Al Meer said that the next phase of the airline's
development, dubbed 'Qatar Airways 2.0', will examine its commercial
operations, the profitability of certain routes in the network and its fleet
mix.
The airline is reviewing its fleet to reduce the number of
aircraft types in order to better "streamline" operations and have
more "consistency" in its offering to passengers, he said.
Its fleet includes the Airbus A320 family, A330s, A350s and
A380s, while its Boeing aircraft models include the 737 family, 787 Dreamliner
and the 777 wide-bodies.
"Having seven different type of aircraft in our fleet
mix is putting pressure on us when it comes to maintenance, spare parts,
training our pilots and training our cabin crew," he said.
Qatar Airways has issued a tender to Airbus and Boeing a few
months ago to "reduce the type of aircraft we have in our fleet, to have
more consistency in what we're giving our passengers and to have a better
streamline in our operations", Mr Al Meer said.
Strong travel demand
Asked about the impact of Middle East conflict on air travel
demand, Mr Al Meer said that Qatar Airways has continued to post growth in its
passenger volumes.
Last year, the number of passengers increased by 30 per
cent, while year-to-date there was a 27 per cent rise in passengers carried
since January, he said.
Load factor, a measure of how well an airline fills
available seats, stands at an average of 85 per cent to 88 per cent across the
network, he said.