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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
LOW cost airline, Fastjet Zimbabwe, says it is set to introduce regional routes in the next few weeks. The airline launched its maiden domestic flight for the Harare-Victoria Falls route on Wednesday.
The airbus A319, which has the inscription “Cecil the Lion”, touched down at Victoria Falls International Airport just before 3.30PM for a mini launch ceremony.
Vice President Emerson Mnangagwa, who was from attending the 5th Conference on Climate and Development in Africa in the resort town, made a brief stop for a chat with the airline’s directors at the airport before boarding his flight to Harare. Fastjet chief executive officer Edward Winter said the airline has six airbuses and was geared to servicing a number of routes locally and regionally.
“We’ll have three flights a week for now and these will be increased to daily flights soon. We’re leasing five airbuses plus another one which we bought to make them six.
“Very soon we’ll be opening routes into the region to countries like Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and others because we want to democratise flying so that people can afford,” he said. The airline also has interests in the Harare-Malawi, Harare-Botswana and Harare South Africa routes.
He added: “We want to grow bigger. We look forward to meeting first time flyers. We’re an investor and Fastjet Zimbabwe is a Zimbabwean company and we’ll invest at least $15 million in the next two or three years when we will also create downstream jobs.”
The airline is targeting to create an estimated 200 jobs directly in the next three years while several people will also be employed in downstream industries as a result of the investment.
Winter said their presence would make a difference in the tourism sector as they will bring in tourists to Victoria Falls.
A single trip from Harare will cost $38 including airport taxes. He said Fastjet has been operating in Tanzania for the past three years and was looking forward to the liberalisation of the skies as they were prepared to move volumes in terms of passengers.
Fastjet, whose major shareholder is Fastjet Plc, becomes the second low cost airline to service domestic routes after Fly Africa whose operations were been suspended this week.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe suspended the airline’s operations due to shareholding disputes and failure to meet statutory requirements.
Online Reporter