Qatar Airways Group CEO, H.E Akbar Al Baker addressed the attendees of the Aviation Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, highlighting the airline’s present and future in Africa, including topics such as commitment to network expansion, recruitment and sustainability. President of the Republic of Rwanda, H E Paul Kagame was also present at the event.

Qatar Airways is underscoring its support of commercial aviation in Africa with a robust recruitment drive to supplement the almost 3,000 personnel from Africa already working with the airline. Africa, Southeast Asia and South Asia are the aviation markets expected to grow the fastest in the coming years.

The recruitment drive from Africa fortifies the airline’s expansion strategy on the continent where there are currently hundreds of vacancies, ranging from cabin-crew and cabin services, cargo and airport operations, customer services, engineering, and flight operations.

During his speech at the Africa Aviation Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, Al Baker said: “We are well-positioned to capitalise on that growth, having committed to continue flying in Africa throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and expanding our operations since then. We will ensure aviation plays a major role in connecting Africa, promoting its social, economic and political integration and boosting intra-Africa trade and tourism.”

He added: “We need to build Africa’s human resources capacity and continue investing in the aviation workforce. Additionally, we recognise the need to encourage women to succeed and excel at all levels of the industry and for aviation to better reflect the public that we serve.”

Since the start of the pandemic, Qatar Airways has resumed four destinations in Africa with Alexandria, Cairo, Khartoum, and Luxor, and added eight new destinations with Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Harare, Kano, Luanda, Lusaka and Port Harcourt joining the current network of a total of 30 destinations in the continent.

Source: Civil Aviation Authority – Qatar