EK is rumored to fly to Victoria Falls via Windhoek with 777. I think this will be too much considering size of market.

https://wolfganghthome.wordpress.com/20 ... -windhoek/

Rumour though it is, it links up two ends of the Safari loop. I went via land between VFA-WDH on Safari, and I flew out to CPT (JNB other option too) so it could help connecting passengers make the most of their time in Africa.
SW serves the route currently 4x a week using an Embraer RJ135, and it certainly isn't cheap for a 1h35min flight. It might do ok for them.

Last week I flew out of WDH on QR. I was in C. There were six (6) passengers. My inward flight (DOH-WDH) on the 19th has been cancelled so I'll get home on the 21st. Is this QR suffering as a result of the blockade or (with KLM, ET, QR, DE, SW all competing) is the market saturated? Will EK do any better? (I certainly won't be flying them in Y.)

I don´t see this happening, the B777 is way too big to operate this flight, almost 360 pax, and with 8/42 in First and Business.
When EK has the A330 maybe 3 weekly could work but still and now also with QR operating in Namibia also, the market is not that big in my opinion.

chiki wrote:

EK is rumored to fly to Victoria Falls via Windhoek with 777. I think this will be too much considering size of market.

https://wolfganghthome.wordpress.com/20 ... -windhoek/

Does EK operate many via flights?

My goodness, what ironic timing. Today I was thinking I needed to visit Victoria Falls (bucket list item) soon and was trying to figure out one connection service from MIA or FLL. EK would provide that from FLL potentially.

EK operates a daily (77W) DXB-LUN-HRE, the way I am reading it is EK will start a DXB-VFA-WDH. KQ have started to serve VFA and are the only airline offering a service to VFA that offer a route that eliminates the stopover at JNB. With tourists are going back to Victoria Falls after the political turmoil from the last 15 years it might be just EK covering KQ if the yields are projected to high on that route.

That's the same way I'm reading it, most probably meaning DXB-VFA-WDH, however I have my doubts. The same people saying this have mentioned Qatar and Turkish before as well. In fact I believe QR might be better option with smaller 787/A330 rather than EK's large 777s. Also not sure if there's any room for more at WDH at the moment.

KQ have launched, but is not a stand-alone flight, in combination with CPT, where they also have traffic right VFA-CPT.
ET also launched VFA, and might actually be offering more and better connections than via NBO, inbound is nonstop ADD-VFA but return via GBE
At the same time SAA increased capacity on daily JNB-VFA (A330), BA/Comair using more 737-800s and will up seasonally to 10 weekly, FastJet is to re-introduce JNB-VFA 3 weekly end of July, Airlink launched CPT-VFA, FastJet also increasing HRE-VFA to 9 weekly...so the market via South Africa haven't declined since more direct services have been launched to VFA...partly I believe because of the whole regions robust inbound tourism growth lately where more international tourists combine VicFalls, Cape Town, Garden Route and Kruger...and also due to more South Africans going to VicFalls perhaps instead of more longhaul.

PM wrote:

Last week I flew out of WDH on QR. I was in C. There were six (6) passengers. My inward flight (DOH-WDH) on the 19th has been cancelled so I'll get home on the 21st. Is this QR suffering as a result of the blockade or (with KLM, ET, QR, DE, SW all competing) is the market saturated? Will EK do any better? (I certainly won't be flying them in Y.)

6 passengers in C or 6 passengers on the whole aircraft?

A couple of years ago WDH only saw widebody service from DE and SW. I was convinced then it could use one or two additional airlines servicing WDH, the tourist potential is there in Namibia. QR, ET and KL (as a tag-on from LAD) indeed filled the gap, and IMO this is more than enough for now. EK sending a 77W to WDH will be a disaster, looks like a desperate move trying to deploy excess capacity. VFA (or LVI or even MUB for that matter) could be an interesting move, but not with widebody aircraft that large. Perhaps as a tag-on from LUN though, but I'm fantasizing now.

I visited Victoria Falls, both in Zimbabwe and Zambia, in early 2014. The amount of tourists in Zim was substantially less than Zam - we practically had the place to ourselves.

While I agree the Zim side is better for viewing the falls, why has VFA received more air service than LVI?

frigatebird wrote:

6 passengers in C or 6 passengers on the whole aircraft?

A couple of years ago WDH only saw widebody service from DE and SW. I was convinced then it could use one or two additional airlines servicing WDH, the tourist potential is there in Namibia. QR, ET and KL (as a tag-on from LAD) indeed filled the gap, and IMO this is more than enough for now. EK sending a 77W to WDH will be a disaster, looks like a desperate move trying to deploy excess capacity. VFA (or LVI or even MUB for that matter) could be an interesting move, but not with widebody aircraft that large. Perhaps as a tag-on from LUN though, but I'm fantasizing now.

Six in C. But Y was relatively empty too and my cancelled flight on the 20th (meant to be an A330-300) makes me wonder if the WDH route is paying its way. I hope so. We need more competition and I loved QR's C product.

jetsetter629 wrote:

I visited Victoria Falls, both in Zimbabwe and Zambia, in early 2014. The amount of tourists in Zim was substantially less than Zam - we practically had the place to ourselves.

While I agree the Zim side is better for viewing the falls, why has VFA received more air service than LVI?

VFA has seen a major upgrade and the luxury safaris on the Zim side are driving a lot of the traffic to VFA.
https://www.ft.com/content/3d14a732-7b6 ... 93b105145e

Has VFA matured enough for EK to get in there? I think it's still too new of a [possibly luxury] market for EK to even consider, unless it is now going after scrapings. Also, it's Zimbabwe we are talking about still. EK has too large aircraft to make VFA and the now possibly saturated WDH work. EK even has Harare coupled with Lusaka and doesn't dedicate an aircraft to it.

jetsetter629 wrote:

I visited Victoria Falls, both in Zimbabwe and Zambia, in early 2014. The amount of tourists in Zim was substantially less than Zam - we practically had the place to ourselves.

While I agree the Zim side is better for viewing the falls, why has VFA received more air service than LVI?

Over the last few years there's been quite a shift in tourism patterns in Southern Africa, travellers are now more accepting the situation in Zim and deal with it, while you can disconnect Victoria Falls from the rest of Zimbabwe's issues, there is still a few things impacting tourists, but now learning to cope with it.

One big impact was mainly driven by South Africa's up and down visa and travel issues and also currency which at that point was somewhat stronger than now which made it more difficult for travellers to travel to South Africa or seemed more expensive than before (and now again), hence the drop in tourists to SA also in 2014/15...but since then it's been straightened out mostly and the Rand have lost ground again making South Africa a cheaper destination again, and so the boom in tourists the last 2 years.
Victoria Falls isn't the kind of destination that people travel to only by longhaul, and mostly combines it with South Africa and/or others like Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia...hence the impact of South Africa's issues.
Similarly the same issues affecting longhaul travellers to Southern Africa impacted South Africans' own travel patterns...there were more issues 2-3 years ago to travel abroad (mainly with families) and with the better currency the appeal to travel longhaul was higher...now with weaker Rand South Africans tend to look closer to home again, and VicFalls is a great weekend/longweekend break away.

VFA's air service increases is mostly driven by this new taste for VicFalls, however it's not that LVI haven't had any changes:
KQ first launched LVI a few years ago as a triangle with HRE, last year only changed to NBO-LVI-CPT when it received 5th freedom rights between LVI and CPT...giving options to combine 3 of Africa's main tourist destinations (Serengeti,VicFalls and Cape Town)...now that they've got 5th freedom rights for VFA-CPT also they decided to continue via both sides of the Falls.
Airlink also recently increased LVI-MQP (Nelspruit-Kruger) to daily service whereby offering the Kruger and Falls combination and also even the Botswana side with Chobe where Airlink have daily JNB service to Kasane (BBK) only 50miles across the border in Botswana.

If VFA really want to be attracting a longhaul carrier or ME3 for that matter, then they should rather try and attract QR, as it's more their kind of destination instead of EK and more fitting for 787 and A330...rather combining VFA and WDH, either WDH as tag-on or triangular routing