Qatar Airways Increases Durban-maputo Weekly Flights

Qatar Airways has increased the frequency of its weekly flights from Maputo, Mozambique, to Durban , South Africa, from five to seven.

This is part of the additional flights it announced in a press release on Monday 10 March.

The expanded services will offer passengers greater flexibility and seamless connections, further strengthening the airline's network of more than 170 destinations, it said.

Qatar Airways was voted the World's Best Airline by Skytrax in 2024. Dohas Hamad International Airport also clinched the World's Best Airport and World's Best Airport Shopping accolades.

Besides the boosted Maputo-Durban route, the airline has increased frequencies to the following destinations:

• Amsterdam - from seven weekly flights to 11.
• Damascus - from three weekly flights to 14.
• Dar Es Salaam-Kilimanjaro - from three weekly flights to seven.
• Entebbe - from seven weekly flights to 11.
• Larnaca - from seven weekly flights to 10.
• London Heathrow - from 49 weekly flights to 56.
• Madrid - from 14 weekly flights to 17 bringing the jointly operated flights between Qatar Airways and Iberia from 21 weekly flights to 24.
• Sharjah - from 21 weekly flights to 35.
• Tokyo Narita - from 11 weekly flights to 14.
• Tunis - from 10 weekly flights to 12.

With the peak summer season approaching, we are pleased to fulfil the ever-increasing demand for air travel with accessible and convenient flight schedules, the airlines Chief Commercial Officer Thierry Antinori said.

Both Maputo and Durban perform well in terms of tourism and business travel , especially during the European summer. However, the former has emerged as the stronger competitor in recent years as reported by Southern Sun in its 2024 annual report .

Durban has struggled to attract tourism as the negative PR about issues such as polluted sea waters and the after-effect of the July 2021 riots impact public perception of the city, it noted.

Southern Sun added that KwaZulu-Natals contribution to its earnings fell to 16. At the same time, Maputos Southern Sun and EasyStay hotels saw their earnings rise by 37, benefiting from shipping business redirected from Durbans troubled port.