Search

Africa and Middle East route updates – November 2023

Share this article

We conclude our global aviation market summary for November with the update about Africa and the Middle East. To see the other editions, please click on the following links:


During the Dubai Airshow, which took place this year from November 13-17, an airline made a major announcement regarding its fleet, entering long-range aircraft for the first time.

flydubai ordered a total of 30 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner planes valued at USD 11 billion, to be delivered starting in 2026.

In addition to flydubai, considering the UAE, Emirates placed a large order for Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The airline ordered an additional 90 Boeing 777-9s, 777-8s and 5 787s, worth $52 billion, and an additional 15 Airbus A350-900s, worth $6 billion. Emirates now has a total order backlog of 310 widebody planes and will continue to take deliveries of new aircraft until 2035.

As for routes, Royal Air Jordanian confirmed the resumption of operations between Amman and Manchester from the second quarter of 2024. Currently, both cities do not have non-stop services, with London being the only UK connection to Jordan. Furthermore, with the start of the 2024 summer season, airlines are beginning to announce new routes, which will begin between April and June of next year.

 

Air Algérie

The company confirmed it will open a new route to Europe as of March 31st, 2024. Air Algérie will operate seven times a week between Algiers and London Gatwick with Boeing 737-800 aircraft configured for 148 passengers.

Daily except Thursday
Thursday

 

In addition to Gatwick airport, the airline currently offers the following schedule to London Heathrow from the Algerian capital:

Monday
Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

 

Between Algiers and Heathrow, Air Algérie operates with Airbus A330-200s and Boeing 737-800s.

Ethiopian

Last November 15th, the carrier inaugurated its flights between Addis Ababa and Bangui. Initially, Ethiopian scheduled these operations with a stopover in Juba in both directions, but they ended up being non-stop. Ethiopian Airlines will operate three weekly services on Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

 

Addis Ababa, Douala, Entebbe, Nairobi and Yaounde are the destinations from Bangui Airport, Central African Republic.

Etihad

The carrier will begin flights between Abu Dhabi and Nice as of June 15th, 2024. Being seasonal, services are planned until mid-September 2024, with the following schedule:

Wednesday and Saturday

 

At present, in the UAE-France market, the airline operates between Abu Dhabi and Paris with Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner jets.

Daily

flydubai

During the Dubai Airshow 2023, flydubai announced that it will enter the widebody market after ordering Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners for its fleet. The 787s, which will be 30 for now, will commence service for the airline effective 2026, joining the current order for 130 Boeing 737 MAX 8s, to be delivered over the next few years. The flydubai fleet consists of the following:

  • Boeing 737-800: 30
  • Boeing 737 MAX: 8: 48
  • Boeing 737 MAX 9: 3

FlyEbril

The carrier launched two new routes to Dubai from Iraq between late October and early November. Both will be carried by UR Airlines’ Airbus A320-200 aircraft, configured for 180 passengers.

Baghdad

Thursday
Sunday

Erbil

Tuesday

FlyNamibia

On October 29th, the company inaugurated its flights between Walvis Bay and Cape Town. FlyNamibia will operate four times a week on Westair Aviation’s Embraer 145s with capacity for 48 passengers.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

 

Walvis Bay airport has flights to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Saint Helena and Windhoek.

flynas

Starting in December, flynas will commence six routes from Madinah, Saudi Arabia. The airline will operate with Airbus A320-200 and Airbus A320neo aircraft.

Four will be international and the remaining routes will be cabotage:

Map by gcmap.com
Saudi Arabia
International

Ibom Air

The Nigerian carrier began international operations in mid-October with the launch of flights to Ghana. Services will be performed from Lagos using Airbus A320 and CRJ-900 planes.

Daily
Daily

Ibom Air’s routes

Abuja
Lagos

Kenya Airways

Beginning February 14th, 2024, Kenya Airways will fly to Somalia, with the new connection between Nairobi and Mogadishu. At the time of publication, the airline will operate three weekly on Embraer 190 aircraft.

Monday, Thursday and Saturday

This route is currently operated by Daallo Airlines on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays with Boeing 737-400s.

LAM Mozambique

The company will start flights to Cape Town as of December 12th. According to its website, LAM will serve three times a week between Maputo and Cape Town with CRJ jets.

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday
Monday, Wednesday and Friday

 

LAM currently flies to Johannesburg from four cities in Mozambique:

 

Map by gcmap.com

Nouvelair Tunisie

As of April 2nd, 2024, Nouvelair will inaugurate operations between Tunis and Casablanca. Flights will be carried out on Airbus A320-200 aircraft with capacity for 180 passengers.

Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

 

Casablanca will be the airline’s first destination to Morocco from Tunisia.

 

Pakistan International

Pakistan International Airlines plans to start services between Karachi and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, from December 1st. The carrier had intended to resume operations on November 24th, but the first flight was canceled.

Friday
Saturday

Qatar Airways

Qatar made its last service, so far, between Doha and Windhoek, Namibia, last November 22nd. The company had three weekly services on the 218-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.

Namibia lost its non-stop operations to Doha, in addition to possible connections to and from the airline’s hub.

Regarding new routes, Qatar Airways plans to start flights between Doha and Neom Bay, Saudi Arabia, effective December 9th. The operations are subject to government approval, but are available for sale on the airline’s website.

Services will be performed twice weekly with Airbus A320-200 aircraft:

Thursday
Saturday

 

The company currently offers seven routes between Qatar and Saudi Arabia:

Map by gcmap.com

 

Royal Jordanian

Starting in April 3rd, 2024, the airline expects to resume flights between Amman and Manchester for the high season. Operations are not for sale, but there is a tentative schedule:

Wednesday and Saturday

 

Jordan’s capital city has services to London, being its only connection to the United Kingdom. British Airways and Royal Jordanian operate from Heathrow, while Wizz Air UK from Gatwick.

  • British Airways: 4 weekly · Airbus A320neo
  • Royal Jordanian: 7 weekly · Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
  • Wizz Air UK: 4 weekly · Airbus A321neo

 

Rwandair

The carrier restarted in November flights between Kigali and Mumbai with a stopover in Entebbe, Uganda. According to its website, Rwandair will operate twice weekly on Boeing 737-800 jets.

Wednesday and Friday
Friday and Sunday

South African

Effective December 13th, South African will inaugurate flights between Johannesburg and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). The company will offer twice-daily services with SunExpress Boeing 737-800s.

Daily
Daily

 

Airlink, CemAir and FlySafair currently operate this route, offering almost 90 weekly flights between the three airlines.

TAAG

In the last edition we published that TAAG had planned to start flights between Angola and Ghana in December. Finally, the state-owned airline made changes to its schedule, eliminating its new route to Accra.

TAAG originally programmed two flights per week with Boeing 737-700 aircraft from Luanda.

Following this cancellation, the company’s international network is now as follows:

Map by gcmap.com
Brazil
Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
Portugal
Sao Tome and Principe
South Africa
Spain

Turkish Airlines

Starting July 9th next year, Turkish intends to boost its flight frequency between Istanbul, Port Louis and Antananarivo. The carrier serves this route, to Mauritius and Madagascar, twice a week with Airbus A330-300 planes.

Thursday and Saturday

 

 

The airline will add a new flight on Tuesdays.

 

 

Cover photo: Martin Le Penven – JetPhotos (Antananarivo, Madagascar).

On The Radar Logo

Get the latest aviation news delivered to you

Get the latest aviation news delivered to you

Flight tracking and aviation industry news direct to your inbox

Aviation news comes quickly, so join more than 1.7 million others who receive weekly aviation industry and flight tracking news from Flightradar24 direct to their inbox.

Share this article
Latest threads
Latest video

Most wanted airport receiver locations

We’re always looking for additional receiver hosts in areas that either lack coverage or need additional coverage. Help us grow the Flightradar24 ADS-B network.

Trending articles
On The Radar Logo
Get weekly updates on Flightradar24 and have the latest aviation news land in your inbox.
AvTalk Logo

AvTalk Episode 316: The helicopter in the Hudson

Most wanted airport receiver locations

We’re always looking for additional receiver hosts in areas that either lack coverage or need additional coverage. Help us grow the Flightradar24 ADS-B network.

How flight tracking works

Flightradar24 combines data from several data sources including ADS-B, MLAT and radar data.
Search the blog
Follow us
Latest AvTalk Podcasts
More stories
In April 2010, the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted, spewing ash high into the atmosphere and wreaking havoc on commercial air traffic in Europe and…
A man with a knife hijacked a Tropicair Cessna Grand Caravan in Belize yesterday. He stabbed three fellow passengers before being shot by another…
An example full flight summary response from the Flightradar24 API: { "data": [ { "fr24_id": "0987654321", "flight": "SK1415", "callsign": "SAS1415", "operated_as": "SAS", "painted_as": "SAS", "type": "A20N", "reg": "SE-DOY", "orig_icao": "ESSA", "orig_iata": "ARN", "datetime_takeoff": "2023-01-27T05:15:22", "runway_takeoff": "12R", "dest_icao": "EKCH", "dest_iata": "CPH", "dest_icao_actual": "EPWA", "dest_iata_actual": "WAW", "datetime_landed": "2023-01-27T06:15:10", "runway_landed": "27L", "flight_time": 3600, "actual_distance": 1007.74, "circle_distance": 6245, "category": "Passenger", "hex": "4A91F9", "first_seen": "2023-01-27T05:06:22", "last_seen": "2023-01-27T06:18:10", "flight_ended": "true" } ] }
Flightradar24’s new and powerful API continues to grow, and the Flight summary API endpoint is our latest addition. Flight summary is our most requested…

Flight tracking top 10 aircraft

Explore the top 10 most tracked aircraft and find out why these particular aircraft draw so much interest.

Help to grow our flight tracking coverage

We are continually looking to improve our flight tracking and the airports below are where new receivers will add the most coverage. Apply for a receiver today and if accepted you’ll receiver a free Flightradar24 Business Subscription.

Free ADS-B Receiver
Flightradar24 logo
Try the full Flightradar24 experience free for 7 days
Remove ads and unlock over 50 additional features
On The Radar Logo

Get the Flightradar24 Aviation newsletter

Flight tracking and aviation industry news direct to your inbox

Aviation news comes quickly, so we want to bring more of the aviation world to you with our weekly Flightradar24 aviation newsletter - On The Radar.

On The Radar Logo