FlyAfrica ready to resume operations

LOW cost airline FlyAfrica Zimbabwe, which is now under new management, will soon return to the skies.

The airline’s executive chairman Mr Cassidy Mugwagwa said they were ready to resume operations after securing all relevant documentation and regulatory approvals to commence flights and dealing with legacy issues that they inherited from the previous management.

“We have so far put in $6.6 million most of which has gone towards settling debts and statutory obligations accrued by the previous management,” he said.

He said they were planning to start with local routes using a leased 112 seat Boeing 737-300, which they were working on bringing into the country.

“We are looking at starting with the Zimbabwe triangle — the Harare, Victoria Falls and Bulawayo routes,” he said. “While we are going to be having promotions, initially we are looking at fares ranging from $150 to $200 for Harare-Victoria Falls and $100 to $150 for Bulawayo, but the fares will fluctuate depending on the numbers.

“We expect to introduce the popular HarareJohannesburg route, Harare-Cape Town, HarareLusaka and Harare-Gaborone later this year.

“We believe that there is scope for our business because our target is the first time flyer, for the HarareJohannesburg route we are planning to tap into the high volume of traffic that pass through Beitbridge border post, that is why we will be setting up travel centres at Machipisa and Roadport.”

Mr Mugwagwa said while they were looking at starting operations with a leased plane, they were expecting to take delivery of two second hand Boeing 737-700 long haul planes by November this year.

“Next year we are planning to reclaim some of the international routes that were abandoned by our predecessors, such as Guangzhou and London,” he said.

FlyAfrica — which was previously 49 percent owned by Mauritius-based FlyAfrica Limited — was grounded in 2015 after shareholder squabbles escalated, resulting in former majority shareholder, Chakanyuka Karase, voluntarily submitting the carrier’s airline operator certificate to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe.

Mr Mugwagwa said that they had leant from their predecessors and were unlikely to face the same challenges.

“I must stress that we are a wholly owned Zimbabwean company and one of the advantages that we have is that we have one or two shareholders at the most and our structure is like a pyramid, narrow at the top and wide at the base because that is where we want to grow,” he said.

FlyAfrica will have to contend with airlines such as Air Zimbabwe and Fastjet, which are already servicing the domestic routes.