Qatar Airways is preparing to unveil a planned equity investment in a southern African carrier, although it has yet to confirm its identity.
Chief executive Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, speaking during the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on 15 May, stated that Qatar Airways served over 30 African cities and had already achieved organic growth in northern, western and eastern Africa.
“Our model is to cover the whole continent,” he says.
“The last piece of the equation is southern Africa. We’re in the final stage of an equity investment in an airline in the southern part of Africa.”
Qatar Airways is already involved in the central African state of Rwanda, where it co-operates with RwandAir and is working with the government to develop airport infrastructure at the capital Kigali.
“This [southern African] airline will help us, will complement, the operation of Kigali as a hub, the operation of RwandAir – as the airline that connects west, east and north Africa – to the airline that we are finalising the investment in, in the southern part of Africa,” says Al-Meer.
He declines to give details on the level of investment.
