Air Zim to relaunch Johannesburg – Victoria Falls Flights

June 2, 2010

The Herald — AIR ZIMBABWE is set to relaunch its Johannesburg-Victoria Falls flight tomorrow, the airline’s chief executive officer, Dr Peter Chikumba, has said.

The flight would be operating three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Giving oral evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development on Monday, Dr Chikumba said the airline was now considering reopening some of the routes it had discontinued.

He said the decision to reopen the routes was premised on the improvement in economic performance and the creation of a conducive political environment.

“As we begin to see economic recovery taking place, business will be moving forward. This Thursday we will be reopening the Johannesburg-Vic Falls route and we are also relooking at the Harare-Dar es Salaam route while considering going into partnership with Air Malawi,” Dr Chikumba said. He also defended the discontinuation of some of the loss-making routes which were impacting negatively on the company.

“There was need to stop bleeding especially in some of the routes like Dubai and China, which had seen the airline making loss. If we fly less than 100 people to China, we will be losing US$250 000 per trip due to a number of issues. “Therefore, we had to temporarily reduce the costs. Route restructuring will minimise bleeding with better economic performance,” Dr Chikumba said.

The Air Zimbabwe chief executive also bemoaned dilapidated equipment, which he said was costing the organisation a lot of money. He said the little revenue the company was making was being gobbled by high maintenance costs.

In an interview after the meeting, Dr Chikumba said they expected the improvement in the country’s political and economic situations to boost demand for their service.

“The stability through the inclusive Government has provided confidence to most international business specifically in the airline industry as we see the industry begin to see both passenger and cargo traffic increasing. With this background we anticipate growth in tourism and hence air travel. It’s an opportune time for Air Zim to begin reviewing some of its route network and specifically we see Johannesburg-Vic Falls going beyond the World Cup.

“Some of the visitors will have an opportunity to share their experiences with other potential visitors to Zimbabwe and Southern Africa,” Dr Chikumba said.

Air Zimbabwe was also looking into possibilities of increasing flights to London. Dr Chikumba said their decisions would be based on the economic outlook at domestic, regional and international levels.

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