SAA targets ‘barren’ Zim route
NATIONAL airline SAA is hoping to flourish where Air Zimbabwe faltered by introducing an additional A330-200 Airbus to service the Johannesburg-Victoria Falls route.
The move comes barely a week after Air Zimbabwe flew only three people from Harare to OR Tambo International Airport as fortunes continue to wilt for Air Zimbabwe.
Air Zimbabwe runs about four aircraft from Harare to Johannesburg, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, among to other destinations.
There are reports that Air Zimbabwe, which Davison Gomo says is a victim of “poor management”, intends to launch flights to London – one of the most lucrative routes to Zimbabwe in the next few months.
The government has over the years shielded the airline from competition but now appears to be opening up the skies for new operators in a bid to boost tourism numbers.
This week SAA unveiled a bigger plane for the route following a $150million (R1.9billion) facelift and expansion of the Victoria Falls Airport.
“There is a lot of potential in Victoria Falls we see it through the numbers we have been getting.
“Our capacity on the old equipment that we have been using was 150 but we have already done 186.
“We still have an even bigger aircraft an A340600, which can still fly into Victoria Falls,” said Winnie Muchanyuka, Zimbabwe manager for SAA.
The route is fully booked up-to March 12, said officials.
The government touts the tourism industry growth story in Zimbabwe but figures released by Zimstats this month showed a bleaker picture of this – about 60 percent of arrivals into Zimbabwe do not engage in any tourism activities.
Zimstats said there were about 2 million travellers to Zimbabwe between July 2015 and June last year.
It said South African travellers were among those with the “highest average expenditure per person per trip” with the overall overage expenditure per person ranging around $385.
“The majority of visitors used cash (80.6 percent while 5.8percent used plastic money. The estimated direct revenue from visitors for July 2015 to June 2016 was $811m,” Zimstats said.
But SAA now has more competition on the route as Ethiopian Airlines plans to introduce four weekly flights later this month while Kenya Airways will also be flying to Victoria Falls in May.