Qatar Airways : The new cargo gateway to Gaborone

Qatar airways are set to become the first Middle Eastern airline to service the capital of Botswana. From the 27th October 2019 the airline will operate three times weekly into Gaborone.

Cargo to Gaborone

Gaborone is the capital and the largest city in Botswana. Land-locked by Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa it is a difficult area to serve from Europe and the Middle East.

Qatar Airways new 3x weekly service looks to change that. The aircraft will be an Airbus A350-900. This service sits nicely within Qatar Airways African destination portfolio. The airline already operates to 22 destinations spread across 15 African countries.

Trade with Botswana

By far the biggest trade with Botswana is diamonds. It isn’t all that they move and some of the destinations may come as a surprise.

• Gems, Precious Metals
• Electrical Machinery
• Meat
• Machinery including computers
• Inorganic chemicals
• Salt,Sulphur,Stone & cement
• Vehicles
• Plastics, Plastic articles
• Aircraft, Spacecraft
• Books, Newspapers.

If you look at Qatar Airways flight schedule you will see why this route makes sense. UK, India, Belgium, and Singapore all do significant trade with Botswana and the Gaborone to Doha flight will make it easier for business passengers and cargo.

The biggest area for trade is Asia followed by Europe. Both continents are high on Qatar Airways flight coverage and many of these export items will fit nicely if packed correctly on an A350-900. Couple that with 247 economy seats and 36 Business class and you see the appeal to the airline and the business traveller.

From the UK a transit of LHR – DOH – GBE on a regular schedule could open up some excellent opportunities for trade.