State-owned Qatar Airways is set to expand its African presence after introducing flights to Zimbabwe recently.

“We are looking forward to bring Qatar Airways soon to Zimbabwe because Qatar Airways as you know, its a big airline,”  Qatar’s new ambassador to Zimbabwe, Salem Al- Jaber told journalists in the capital Harare.

“We have ten flights a week to Johannesburg and we would like to extend it from Johannesburg to Harare at least three flights a week initially and then later on maybe as a direct flight,” Salem added.

Qatar Airways is the state-owned airline, headquartered in the capital Doha.

Founded in 1993, it is one of the world’s leading five-star airlines, flying to over 125 destinations in six different continents using a fleet of more than 100 aircraft.

The airline has more than 30 000 staff, with 17 000 people employed directly and a further 13 000 in its subsidiaries.

In the early 1990s Zimbabwe had 45 international carriers servicing the country but since year 2000 several popular airlines pulled out of the southern African nation in protest over human rights violation by President Robert Mugabe’s regime.