Tourism season reaches peak

CAAZ public relations manager Mrs Annajulia Hungwe said the busy period for the tourism industry was between July and October.

“The trend has always been that Victoria Falls and perhaps the rest of the tourism attractions in Zimbabwe, experience their peak between the months July to October, every year. At the Victoria Falls International airport, this is the time that British Airways/Comair or South Africa Airways (SAA) normally introduce additional flights to meet the higher demand for seats to Victoria Falls.”

This year, Mrs Hungwe said, BA/Comair introduced additional flights in August and September to meet the extra demand for seats to the resort town.

“The airline has indicated that this will continue up to the end of October 2012,” she said.

Mrs Hungwe said in addition, Air Namibia, which used to fly to Victoria Falls only four days a week, increased its frequency to seven days a week from March 2012.

“We have seen the airline’s load factors increasing to above 60 percent on average, for their daily flights into Victoria Falls and the airlines landing at Victoria Falls airport are SAA, BA/Comair, Air Namibia, and Air Zimbabwe.”

She said by virtue of having introduced supplementary flights, BA/Comair has had the larger share of the market.

“Currently, we are awaiting the launch of flights by Fresh Air on the Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route as well as on domestic routes,” she said.