Fly Africa in Byo maiden flight

Senior Business Reporter
LOW-cost airline Fly Africa touched down at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo yesterday afternoon in its maiden flight linking the City of Kings and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The red and white airline landed at the upgraded airport at 1:15PM.

Fly Africa introduced the route as part of its expansion programme aimed at servicing more routes on the continent.

“We hope as the flight continues to service the route more people will get to know about it and the bookings will increase,” said an official from the airline’s Bulawayo offices who requested anonymity.

The new flight costs $90 to travel from Bulawayo to Johannesburg.

It will be plying the route daily departing from Johannesburg at 12noon arriving in Bulawayo at 1:15PM before returning to Johannesburg at 1.45PM.

Following the launch of the Johannesburg –Bulawayo route, the airline plans to introduce the Johannesburg-Windhoek (Namibia) route, Harare-Lusaka (Zambia), Harare -Lusaka (Zambia), Harare-Lubumbashi (DRC), Victoria Falls-Cape Town (South Africa) and Victoria Falls–Kilimanjaro (Tanzania).

Recently, a 24-member Zimbabwe cabin crew was recruited and has been trained on quality service particularly on security.

Fly Africa is a partnership between the Karase family’s Fresh Air and Mike Bond of the now defunct One Time of South Africa, which began operations in 2014.

The airline launched its first aircraft, Z-FAA, last August servicing the Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route and flying three times a week before increasing its frequency to four times. The introduction of more airlines was targeted at complementing the national airline, Air Zimbabwe.