A Qatar Airways plane. The airline is set to launch direct flights to Mombasa. [Photo/ theplanetd.com]
The Coast tourism sector is set to receive a major boost after Qatar Airways unveiled its plans to launch direct flights between Doha and Mombasa.Before the new development, the airline used to operate direct flights to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).The airline’s management has confirmed that Mombasa is one of the 12 destinations in different parts of the world that will benefit from their services in 2018. The service provider joins several airlines offering flights to the coastal city including Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Turkish Airlines and RwandAir, the Nation reports.Qatar’s chief executive Akbar Al Baker confirmed the plans saying the airline will improve transport in the region.“The new destinations announced today mean that we can now bring (our) innovative and world-class products to even more travelers around the world,” he said in a statement.The airline’s plans come at a time when both the county and national government are putting into place measures to grow the tourism sector in the region. Tourism stakeholders argue that opening up the skies is among the ways to promote this sector.