On October 25th at 10:08 local time, United Airlines’ inaugural flight from Newark/New York arrived in Marrakech. The company will operate three times weekly by Boeing 767-300(ER) aircraft with 167 seats in three classes (46 United Polaris Business, 22 United Premium Plus and 99 Economy).

The airline will provide 501 seats a week on this route per leg, surpassing 2,000 monthly seats with this schedule. United Airlines becomes the second company with operations between the Moroccan city and the American continent following Air Transat, which serves from/to Montreal on Airbus A321neo planes.

United reaches five scheduled destinations in Africa with the launch of Marrakech Ras Al Khaimah International Airport.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• UA 628  Newark EWR 21:45 · 10:20+1* RAK Marrakech

*11:20 as of November 6th.

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• UA 627  Marrakech RAK 12:20* · 16:25 EWR Newark

*13:20 as of November 3rd

In accordance with a press release shared by United, it will offer its largest-ever schedule in Africa during winter 2024/25, and will be the only U.S. airline to operate flights between the United States and Morocco.

As well as the new route to Marrakech, United Airlines will boost its services to Accra in late-October and Lagos in December.

With respect to Dakar, as announced in this article, the company will fly for the first time effective May 23rd, 2025.

At the time of publication, the schedule had not yet been announced, with only the start date and aircraft used already confirmed. The schedules have recently been released and the route will be operated as follows:

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday

• UA 461  Washington IAD 18:30 · 07:00+1 DSS Dakar

Monday, Wednesday and Friday

• UA 460  Dakar DSS 09:05 · 13:55 IAD Washington

Considering the new route to Dakar, this will be United Airlines’ network in Africa.

Newark

• Cape Town (CPT): 3 weekly · Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
• Johannesburg (JNB): 7 weekly · Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
• Marrakech (RAK): 3 weekly · Boeing 767-300(ER)

Washington DC

• Accra (ACC): 7 weekly · Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
• Cape Town (CPT): 3 weekly · Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
• Dakar (DSS): 3 weekly · Boeing 767-300(ER) · May 23rd, 2025
• Lagos (LOS): 3 weekly · Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (currently)

Oman Air to fly between Muscat and Rome

New route to Europe.

Beginning December 20th, the airline will commence operations between the capitals of Oman and Italy, offering four flights per week. According to its website, Oman Air will perform these services on Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft configured for 162 passengers.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• WY 147  Muscat MCT 15:00 · 19:30 FCO Rome
• WY 148  Rome FCO 20:30 · 05:45+1 MCT Muscat

In addition to the new service to Rome, the company will boost frequencies to Europe, with more flights from Muscat.

• Paris (CDG): from 4 to 5 weekly · December 17th
• Milan (MXP): from 4 to 5 weekly · December 19th
• Munich (MUC): from 4 to 7 weekly · December 19th
• Zurich (ZRH): from 4 to 5 weekly · December 22nd

South African increases flights to Australia

The carrier will expand its services to Perth, its only destination in Australia, which resumed operations from Johannesburg using 253-seat Airbus A340-300s on April 28th.

South African Airways will boost from three to four weekly flights on this route from December 7th, reaching five services per week by January 6th, 2025:

Daily except Wednesday and Friday

• SA 280  Johannesburg JNB 20:35 · 12:10+1 PER Perth

Daily except Thursday and Saturday

• SA 281  Perth PER 23:25 · 04:40+1 JNB Johannesburg

Perth and Sao Paulo (Brazil) are South African Airways’ destinations outside Africa.

We review other highlights of the Africa and Middle East market

Air Arabia Maroc

The Moroccan airline will fly between Fez and Milan Bergamo starting December 15th using Airbus A320-200 planes configured for 174 passengers in single class. Air Arabia Maroc will serve with this schedule:

Wednesday and Sunday

• 3O 447  Fez FEZ 13:45 · 16:40 BGY Milan
• 3O 448  Milan BGY 17:30 · 20:25 FEZ Fez

Air Arabia Egypt

Cairo – Kuwait City, Air Arabia Egypt’s new route.

Flights will begin on January 14th, 2025, which will be performed three times weekly. As per its website, the company will operate by Airbus A320-200.

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday

• E5 212  Cairo CAI 00:50 · 04:15 KWI Kuwait City (Sunday)
• E5 212  Cairo CAI 15:40 · 19:05 KWI Kuwait City (Tuesday and Thursday)

• E5 213  Kuwait City KWI 04:55 · 07:05 CAI Cairo (Sunday)
• E5 213  Kuwait City KWI 19:45 · 21:55 CAI Cairo (Tuesday and Thursday)

Air Cairo

The airline will inaugurate two new connections to/from Sharjah in December, to be conducted with Airbus A320s:

• Alexandria (HBE): 3 weekly · December 3rd
• Assiut (ATZ): 2 weekly · December 5th

Air Cairo currently provides three flights a week between Cairo and Sharjah on the same aircraft.

Air India

A second route to Nairobi, Kenya.

Operations will commence on November 25th, and will be carried out from Mumbai with Vistara’s Airbus A321 aircraft, three times weekly.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday

• AI 989  Mumbai BOM 01:40 · 05:15 NBO Nairobi
• AI 990  Nairobi NBO 06:15 · 15:15 BOM Mumbai

Vistara’s A321s are configured for 188 passengers in three seating classes (12 Business, 24 Premium Economy and 152 Economy).

Airlink

The South African carrier continues to expand its international services from Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport.

Using 98-seat Embraer 190 aircraft, Airlink will launch flights to Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) as of March 28th, 2025.

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• 4Z 10  Johannesburg JNB 20:30 · 23:40 FIH Kinshasa
• 4Z 11  Kinshasa FIH 00:25 · 05:30 JNB Johannesburg (Mon/Thu/Sat)

Air Tanzania

Effective October 29th, Air Tanzania will modify its operations on the Dar-es-Salaam – Dubai route, adding a stop in Zanzibar on the DXB-DAR leg.

The airline will serve Boeing 737 MAX 9s with a capacity of 181 passengers.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• TC 404  Dar-es-Salaam DAR 20:00 · 02:30+1 DXB Dubai
• TC 405  Dubai DXB 04:00 · 08:30 DAR Dar-es-Salaam (Mon/Tue/Thu/Sat)

New service

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• TC 414  Dar-es-Salaam DAR 20:00 · 02:30+1 DXB Dubai
• TC 415  Dubai DXB 04:00 · 08:40 ZNZ Zanzibar (Wed/Fri/Sun)
• TC 415  Zanzibar ZNZ 09:30 · 10:00 DAR Dar-es-Salaam (Wed/Fri/Sun)

Centrum Air

On November 1st, Centrum Air will inaugurate its flights to Doha from Tashkent, which will be conducted with Airbus A321neo under the following schedule:

Friday

• C6 3341  Tashkent TAS 10:10 · 12:10 DOH Doha
• C6 3342  Doha DOH 13:30 · 19:20 TAS Tashkent

Corendon

Corendon Dutch will increase its African services, with a new flight to Hurghada as of December 15th. The airline will perform a weekly operation to the Egyptian city using Boeing 737-800s.

Sunday

• CD 876  Hurghada HRG 14:10 · 18:25 GRQ Groningen
• CD 875  Groningen GRQ 19:25 · 01:15+1 HRG Hurghada

EGYPTAIR

More seats to Tokyo Narita.

Effective November 2nd, EGYPTAIR will expand its operations in Japan, starting to fly with 346-seat Boeing 777-300(ER) jets. Currently, the company offers services on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, configured for 309 passengers.

Saturday

• MS 964  Cairo CAI 23:10 · 18:10+1 NRT Tokyo
• MS 965  Tokyo NRT 20:30 · 03:50+1 CAI Cairo (Sunday)

The frequency will remain unchanged.

Emirates

The company is again postponing the launch of its Airbus A350-900 flights.

In our last Africa and Middle East report, we had published that Emirates planned to start services with these aircraft as of December 2nd, on the Dubai – Edinburgh route.

Following a further update of the schedule, it was confirmed the airline is delaying the first operation to January 15th, 2025, keeping Edinburgh as the inaugural route. In addition, the other routes will also be postponed, being scheduled for February and March 2025.

First flight with A350

• Edinburgh (EDI): January 15th, 2025
• Ahmedabad (AMD): February 1st, 2025
• Bahrain (BAH): February 1st, 2025
• Kuwait City (KWI): February 1st, 2025
• Mumbai (BOM): February 1st, 2025
• Colombo (CMB): March 1st, 2025
• Lyon (LYS): March 1st, 2025
• Bologna (BLQ): March 15th, 2025

Regarding the first A350, as can be seen through our database, the future A6-EXA (currently F-WZGA) made its first test flight on September 25th, lasting 3 hours and 55 minutes.

At publication time, the aircraft performed three other test flights, on October 4th, 15th and 22nd.

Ethiopian

Beginning November 4th, Ethiopian Airlines will boost services between Addis Ababa and Amman. The company operates this route with Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Daily

• ET 428  Addis Ababa ADD 22:30 · 02:20+1 AMM Amman
• ET 429  Amman AMM 03:15 · 07:00 ADD Addis Ababa

Monday, Wednesday and Friday · new flight

• ET 430  Addis Ababa ADD 10:15 · 14:05 AMM Amman
• ET 431  Amman AMM 16:05 · 19:50 ADD Addis Ababa

flydubai

New destination in Nepal.

Flydubai will commence flying the Dubai – Siddharthanagar – Kathmandu – Dubai route from November 10th. In line with its website, the carrier schedules a daily frequency on Boeing 737-800 planes.

Daily

• FZ 8639  Dubai DXB 08:15 · 14:00 BWA Siddharthanagar
• FZ 8639  Siddharthanagar BWA 15:00 · 15:45 KTM Kathmandu
• FZ 8639  Kathmandu KTM 16:45 · 21:00 DXB Dubai

Kathmandu is already a regular flydubai destination, with five services per day from Dubai.

FlySafair

The airline added a new Boeing 737-800 to its fleet.

As we commented in our last Latin America report, a Boeing 737 ex Comair (British), with the registry N202TS at the time, arrived in Latacunga, Ecuador, on August 7th from Johannesburg via Windhoek and Recife, to receive a C-check and painting after Comair’s retirement in February 2022.

This Boeing 737, which will be re-registered as ZS-ZWG, becomes the 35th aircraft in Flysafair’s fleet, consisting of 5 Boeing 737-400s and 30 Boeing 737-800s. As per our database, the airplane returned to South Africa on October 9th, flying the Latacunga – Recife – Windhoek – Johannesburg route.

The aircraft will shortly commence regular services with Flysafair.

Gulf Air

More Airbus A321neo flights to India.

The carrier introduced these aircraft on four other routes from Bahrain effective October 27th. In accordance with our database, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa and Hyderabad were the new additions:

• Bengaluru (BLR): 7 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Chennai (MAA): 7 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Cochin (COK): 6 weekly · Airbus A320-200
• Delhi (DEL): 14 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Goa (GOI): 3 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Hyderabad (HYD): 6 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Kozhikode (CCJ): 6 weekly · Airbus A320-200
• Mumbai (BOM): 14 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Trivandrum (TRV): 6 weekly · Airbus A320-200

Iraqi Airways

In late-October, Iraqi Airways schedules to launch flights between Baghdad and Sharjah. The company will operate four weekly services by Boeing 737s.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday

• IA 341  Baghdad BGW 13:30 · 16:45 SHJ Sharjah
• IA 342  Sharjah SHJ 17:45 · 19:00 BGW Baghdad

Jazeera Airways

The airline intends to resume operations between Kuwait City and Siddharthanagar from November 9th, after a year and a half of suspension.

Jazeera schedules three flights a week with 174-seat Airbus A320neo aircraft.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• J9 545  Kuwait City KWI 00:20 · 07:45 BWA Siddharthanagar
• J9 546  Siddharthanagar BWA 08:30 · 11:15 KWI Kuwait City

Siddharthanagar will be the second destination of the company in Nepal following Kathmandu (J9 539/540).

Kenya Airways

A Hi Fly Airbus A330-300 will operate for Kenya Airways, via wet-lease.

The airline started services with this aircraft, registered 9H-HFI on October 18th. This will be the schedule, with the weekly flights:

• Nairobi (NBO) – Dubai (DXB): 7 weekly
• Nairobi (NBO) – Kinshasa (FIH): 3 weekly
• Nairobi (NBO) – Lusaka (LUN) – Harare (HRE) – Nairobi (NBO): 2 weekly

Nouvelair Tunisie

The carrier will expand its flights to Algeria, with the new route between Tunis and Oran. According to its website, the first service will be on Wednesday, December 19th, but thereafter it will operate on Mondays and Thursdays.

Monday and Thursday

• BJ 128  Tunis TUN 20:45 · 22:35 ORN Oran (Monday)
• BJ 128  Tunis TUN 08:30 · 10:20 ORN Oran (Thursday)

• BJ 129  Oran ORN 23:35 · 01:25+1 TUN Tunis (Monday)
• BJ 129  Oran ORN 11:20 · 13:10 TUN Tunis (Thursday)

Nouvelair currently operates between Oran and Montpellier.

Oman Air

In addition to the new services to Europe, the company will increase its operations between Muscat and Moscow Sheremetyevo as of December 1st. Oman Air will boost from three to five flights per week on this route.

Daily except Wednesday and Friday

• WY 183  Muscat MCT 15:25 · 21:00 SVO Moscow
• WY 184  Moscow SVO 22:20 · 05:40+1 MCT Muscat

On December 25th, the company will reach six weekly services (new flight on Wednesdays).

Qatar Airways

The airline will change the aircraft used on the Doha – Hangzhou route starting December 15th, switching to 284-passenger Airbus A350-900s. Qatar currently serves between the two cities by Airbus A330-300s, configured with 21 more seats.

In accordance with its website, Qatar Airways will maintain the same flight frequency.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• QR 890  Doha DOH 02:30 · 15:40 HGH Hangzhou

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday

• QR 891  Hangzhou HGH 00:10 · 06:00 DOH Doha

Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai are its passenger destinations in China.

SAUDIA

Riyadh – Kozhikode, SAUDIA’s new route.

The company plans to begin operations to the Indian city, which it schedules three weekly flights on Airbus A321-200 aircraft configured for 165 passengers.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday · first flight December 3rd

• SV 712  Riyadh RUH 01:45 · 09:00 CCJ Kozhikode
• SV 713  Kozhikode CCJ 10:15 · 13:10 RUH Riyadh

Bengaluru, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Mumbai are its routes to India, from different Saudi Arabian cities.

Sunclass Airlines

In October, the Scandinavian carrier launched three new routes to Hurghada from Europe, to operate during winter 2024/25. The flights will be carried out by Airbus A321:

• Helsinki (HEL): 1 weekly · October 10th · Airbus A321-200
• Copenhagen (CPH): 1 weekly · October 14th · Airbus A321-200
• Gothenburg (GOT): 1 weekly · October 28th · Airbus A321neo

TAAG

Angola’s state-owned airline schedules new changes to its Luanda – Porto route, which would perform year-round.

At time of publication, services would start from April 15th, 2025, offering two flights per week with Boeing 777-300(ER) aircraft configured for 289/293 passengers in two classes.

Tuesday and Thursday

• DT 654  Luanda LAD 23:30 · 06:20+1 OPO Porto
• DT 655  Porto OPO 09:20 · 18:10 LAD Luanda (Wed/Fri)

If launched, it would be TAAG Linhas Aereas de Angola’s second destination in Europe after Lisbon.

Tunisair

Effective March 31st, 2025, Tunisair will begin charter operations between Djerba and Lisbon, which will be carried out during summer 2025. The company schedules one weekly frequency by Airbus A320-200s.

Monday

• TU 8524  Djerba DJE 14:00 · 17:00 LIS Lisbon
• TU 8525  Lisbon LIS 18:00 · 20:50 DJE Djerba

United

The airline will increase frequencies in 2025 between Washington DC and Accra (Ghana). 

United was scheduled to reduce weekly flights from seven to three on February 13th, 2025, after peak season. According to its recent network update, it will provide six services a week through early March 2025, offering three weekly operations thereafter.

Daily except Tuesday

• UA 996  Washington IAD 18:15 · 08:55+1 ACC Accra
• UA 997  Accra ACC 23:45 · 06:20+1 IAD Washington (daily except Wednesday)

These services are operated with 243-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.

UTAIR

Boeing 767-200(ER) to Dubai World Center.

The Russian airline began flights from Moscow Vnukovo on 767-200s, which are configured for 238 passengers, effective October 27th.

Daily

• UT 715  Moscow VKO 06:00 · 12:25 DWC Dubai (Monday)
• UT 715  Moscow VKO 08:40 · 15:00 DWC Dubai (daily except Monday)

• UT 716  Dubai DWC 13:50 · 18:40 VKO Moscow (Monday)
• UT 716  Dubai DWC 16:25 · 21:15 VKO Moscow (daily except Monday)

New aircraft from airlines in Africa and the Middle East

There were no new additions in October.

• flyadeal

• TAAG Linhas Aereas de Angola

As can be seen through our database, TAAG Linhas Aereas de Angola’s new Airbus A220-300 made its first test flights.

The first of these, which lasted 3 hours and 23 minutes, departed on October 23rd at 20:01 local time, arriving back in Luanda at 23:24 local time. On October 24th, it operated its second flight, lasting 2 hours and 6 minutes.

This aircraft, new from the factory and TAAG’s first A220, will enter service soon.

Other reports we have published

• United States and Canada
• Latin America
• Europe
• Asia and Oceania

Cover photo: Office National Des Aéroports (ONDA, Morocco)