National airline will ensure lower fares - expert
By MAILESI BANDA THE establishment of a national airline in Zambia is expected to increase route competition resulting in lower fares, Civil Aviation Authority director general, Gabriel Lesa has said.
Mr. Lesa said the national airline will also increase air service levels, connectivity and stimulate addi-tional traffic volumes.
And Mr Lesa has advised the government to ap-point a competent, self-driven and knowledgeable management team to steer the proposed national airline towards growth and sustainability.
He said the team appointed should carry out the government’s agenda on the national airline with-out compromising on the safety and quality of its operations.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Lesa said having a proactive team running the aviation industry is a critical element to a sustain-able airline.
Mr Lesa said Zambia’s strategy to become a re-gional transport hub and transforming Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport as a re-gional hub will receive a great boost by having a local airline to ensure adequate connectivity to both domestic and foreign destinations.
He noted that with infrastructure development al-ready underway at more than US$1 billion, it makes perfect sense to invest in an airline and en-sure effective future utilisation of these national assets.
“Air transport is not only the fastest and safest mode of transport, but also the most economical when you consider the savings made in the econ-omy in terms of time and loss of human capital to surface transport accidents,” Mr Lesa said.
He said air transport is indispensable for tourism, where convenient air service facilitates and the ar-rival of larger numbers of tourists to a region or country are promoted.
He explained that in order to facilitate increased tourism, trade and investment, agriculture and other sectors of the economy the national airline was a must have.
Mr Lesa said a national airline will bring about enhanced productivity, economic growth and in-creased employment.