Qatar Airways has added three additional flights per week between its hub in Doha and Khartoum, in Sudan, bringing the total number of services to the African capital to 17 weekly flights. The additional flights will improve connections from Khartoum to the airline’s wider global network via Doha, offering passengers more choice with further convenience and flexibility to their travel plans.

“As part of Qatar Airways’ ever-expanding route map, a key pillar is to also evaluate existing routes and increase capacity where there is passenger demand,” said Akbar Al Baker, chief executive officer, Qatar Airways. “Qatar Airways can seamlessly connect travellers from Khartoum via our Doha hub to diverse cities. At the same time, with our new additional services, we offer travellers from around the world increased connectivity to access Khartoum.”

Qatar Airways began operations to Khartoum in May 1994 and currently deploys an Airbus A320 on the route configured with 12 seats in First Class and up to 132 seats in Economy. Although it is the sole carrier to offer non-stop flights on the Khartoum – Doha route, this has not always been the case and Sudan Airways offered its own operation up until February 2012.

According to MIDT data, an estimated 74,000 bi-directional O&D passengers travelled on the route in 2012, up a massive 73.2 per cent on the previous year. A small growth is also anticipated for 2013 with demand up 4.2 per cent across the first eleven months of the year versus the same period in 2012.

The oneworld alliance member may hold a monopoly on the city pair but it does also face strong competition from the Middle East’s other hub carriers, especially its Gulf rivals with Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways offering flights to their global networks via Dubai and Abu Dhabi, respectively.

In the table below we look at the main flows for passengers originating or ending their journeys on Qatar Airways’ flight from Kahrtoum. Our analysis shows that in the year ending November 2013, point-to-point demand on this route accounted for 23.8 per cent of the estimated demand with the largest onward passenger markets interestingly including both Abu Dhabi and Dubai