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Africa and Middle East route updates – October 2023

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We continue with the weekly series, in this case from Africa and the Middle East, concluding the global report for the month. To read about the four other markets, please click on the following links:

 

A highlight of the market is the return of South African Airways to Brazil after a four-year hiatus. The airline recovers its connectivity with South America by resuming services to São Paulo.

Cape Town and Johannesburg will have flights to Guarulhos airport. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Johannesburg was South African Airways’ only destination in the Brazilian market.

To consult the airline’s regular schedule, check the SAA section below.

Air Algérie

Air Algérie resumed operations between Algiers and Palma de Mallorca on October 22nd. Services will be performed twice a week with 66-seat ATR 72-500 aircraft.

Flights will have a duration of approximately one hour, and will be every Thursday and Sunday.

 

Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca are the airline’s destinations in Spain.

Map by gcmap.com

Air Cairo

The carrier based in Egypt’s capital city postpones the start of its flights between Cairo and Tangier, Morocco. Initially, the launch was scheduled for late October, but at the time of publication, services will begin on January 2nd, 2024.

Air Cairo plans the following schedule with Airbus A320s:

Tuesday


Sunday

 

Currently, Casablanca is the airline’s only destination in Morocco.

Air Mauritius

As of December 8th, the Mauritius airline will increase its operations to Perth, a route it currently operates twice weekly. The flights are carried out with Airbus A330-900neo aircraft configured for 288 passengers.

Tuesday and Saturday


Wednesday
and Sunday


Air Mauritius will add a flight on Fridays from Port Louis and from Perth on Saturdays.

Australia, France, India, Madagascar, Malaysia, Reunion, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are Air Mauritius’ international markets.

Emirates

Effective November 1st, Emirates boosted its flights between Dubai and Hong Kong. The airline increased from seven to fourteen weekly services.

The new flight, EK 382/383, will be operated on Boeing 777-300(ER)s for 356 passengers in three seating classes.

Daily (Airbus A380)


Daily


Apart from Emirates, Cathay Pacific operates this route, once a day with Airbus A350 aircraft.

Etihad

On October 29th, Etihad increased its flights between Abu Dhabi and Mumbai, a route operated by Airbus A320, Airbus A321, Boeing 777-300(ER), Boeing 787-9 and Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner jets. The UAE carrier upgraded from three to four daily services.

Dailynew


Daily


Daily


Daily


Air India, IndiGo and Vistara operate this route as well, all three with a daily frequency.

Furthermore, the airline will increase its capacity on the Abu Dhabi – Barcelona route. 

Etihad will operate between the two cities only with Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner as of November 19th, as can be seen on its website.

At present, Etihad serves El Prat airport using Boeing 787-9s and Boeing 787-10s.

Seats

  • Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner: 290
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner: 336


Daily

 

Iraqi Airways

Kirkuk will recover its connectivity with Cairo from November 7th

Iraqi Airways plans to operate one weekly service on 90-passenger CRJ-900 aircraft.

Tuesday

 

 

Iraqi Airways, due to the launch of Kirkuk, will reach five destinations from Cairo:

Map by gcmap.com

Kenya Airways

The airline has increased operations to London from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Previously, Kenya Airways had ten flights a week with 219-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft.

As of October 29th, operations expanded to 14, and this schedule will be available for the next few months:

Daily


Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday


Tuesday


Friday, Sunday

 

Kuwait Airways

Kuwait Airways inaugurated flights between Kuwait City and Barcelona on October 30th. The company will operate three weekly services on Airbus A320-200s with capacity for 132 passengers.

Monday, Thursday and Saturday

 

For the first time, the carrier will have flights to Barcelona’s El Prat airport.

Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM)

The airline from Mozambique plans to resume flights between Maputo and Lisbon as of December 12th. According to its website, LAM expects the following schedule:

Lisbon – Maputo

Tuesday


Thursday


Saturday


Maputo – Lisbon

Wednesday


Friday


Sunday


The operations will be carried out with Boeing 777-200(ER) aircraft, to be leased from EuroAtlantic.

Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe are currently LAM’s regular markets.

Qatar Airways

The company will resume flights to Marrakech, Morocco, as of April 1st, 2024. Qatar’s last flights to the city were on September 11th, 2023.

As before, the route will be Doha – Casablanca – Marrakech – Casablanca – Doha.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

 

 

Current schedule between Qatar and Morocco:

  • Qatar Airways · Casablanca (CMN) – Doha (DOH): 3 weekly · Boeing 787
  • Royal Air Maroc · Casablanca (CMN) –  Doha (DOH): 7 weekly · Boeing 787

SAUDIA

The Jeddah-based carrier will inaugurate its fourth route to the Americas. SAUDIA will resume operations to Toronto starting December 2nd.

Services between the two cities will return after almost five years, as the last flight was in September 2018.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (Boeing 787-9)

 

Los Angeles, New York and Washington are the carrier’s present destinations in the Americas.

Map by gcmap.com

South African Airways

The company resumed service to Brazil on October 31st after an almost four-year suspension as a result of the pandemic and major restructuring. Previously, South African operated to Sao Paulo from Johannesburg with Airbus A340 aircraft.

This October 31st, the airline inaugurated services between Cape Town and Guarulhos, a route it had never operated. In addition, on November 6th, the carrier will resume flights between Johannesburg and Guarulhos.

Both routes will be carried out on Airbus A330-300s with 249 seats, twice a week.

Cape Town

Tuesday and Saturday

 

Johannesburg

Monday and Thursday


SAA’s schedule

Cape Town

  • Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Johannesburg, South Africa


Johannesburg

  • Accra, Ghana
  • Cape Town, South Africa
  • Durban, South Africa
  • Kinshasa, Democratic Republic Of The Congo
  • Harare, Zimbabwe
  • Lagos, Nigeria
  • Lilongwe, Malawi
  • Lusaka, Zambia
  • Port Louis, Mauritius
  • Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
  • Windhoek, Namibia

TAAG

TAAG Angola Airlines, the state-owned carrier of this country, is delaying the launch of its flights between Luanda and Accra, Ghana. The company had planned to inaugurate operations in September, but will be postponed until at least January 2024.

Services are scheduled to start on January 17th with this schedule, although the flight is not not yet available for sale on TAAG’s website:

Tuesday and Sunday


Monday and Wednesday

 

Uganda Airlines

The carrier inaugurated two new routes from the capital city of Uganda during October. Lagos and Mumbai, in Nigeria and India respectively, were the recent additions, which will have three weekly flights with 261-seat Airbus A330-800neo jets.

Mumbai · first flight was on October 7th

Monday and Wednesday


Saturday


Tuesday and Thursday


Sunday


Lagos · first flight was on October 19th

Monday and Sunday


Thursday

 

Regarding the civil aviation situation in Israel, and the status of each airline, you can listen to AvTalk Episode 237.

Cover photo: Sander in West-Africa – JetPhotos.

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