Tawanda Karombo Harare
BUDGET airline Fly Africa has expanded its Zimbabwe flight frequency to include new daily flights linking Harare and Johannesburg, a development that experts have said would heighten competition on the lucrative route.
SAA and Air Zimbabwe already have flights linking the two cities. The entry of a low-cost carrier like Fly Africa might push down prices on the route as operators fought for passengers, travel industry sources in Zimbabwe said.
Fly Africa will launch daily flights on the Harare-Johannesburg route on November 1 as the company keeps up the momentum of spreading its budget flights in the region.
Fares from as low as R399 would be charged for flights on the route, the company said on Tuesday.
Adrian Hamilton-Manns, the chief executive of Fly Africa, said the new flight schedule was a major milestone “for [the] airline and developing business in Africa” as it gave travellers a cheaper alternative. Fly Africa already runs daily flights between Johannesburg and the resort town of Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side of the Zambezi.
“Business and leisure travellers have been paying too much for far too long to travel between Harare and Johannesburg. Our minimum fare of R399, compared to our competitors’ minimum fare of R1 660, shows Fly Africa’s commitment to bringing low fares to Africa,” he said.
The new flights will mark the airline’s entry into the lucrative business travel market and officials at the company said its presence in this segment would help companies and entrepreneurs “to reduce their travel costs” by about 80 percent.
Zimbabwe has long been criticised for shielding the loss-making state-run Air Zimbabwe from open competition for money-spinning Harare-Johannesburg flights by refusing to open up the route to more players.
However, this has changed after the flag carrier ran into financial problems that reduced its capacity to operate efficiently on the route.
Fly Africa had to overcome licensing hurdles for its pilots on the Victoria Falls route.
“With such low fares and no fuel surcharges, it’s not only the business traveller who benefits. Many leisure travellers want to travel between these two major African cities,” Fly Africa said.
Tickets for the new route are already available on the airline’s website.