Air Zim’s new routes | The Zimbabwean

via Air Zim’s new routes | The Zimbabwean by Clayton Masekesa

As demand for airline services increases, Air Zimbabwe has plans to offer flights from Harare to Durban, Lusaka and Lilongwe.

In an interview last week during the United Nations World Tourism General Assembly held, the Air Zimbabwe Public Relations Manager, Shingai Taruvinga, said the airline would introduce three weekly flights on the routes.

“We have done our research and we hope that by October we will be servicing the routes. Demand is at its peak,” she said.

The additional routes will take Air Zimbabwe’s weekly flights to 16. The airline, which collapsed under the weight of massive debt and depleted passenger numbers in 2011, has been on an aggressive domestic and regional network expansion since November last year.

Its market share on Zimbabwean destinations plunged to less than five percent in 2012, from over 10 percent in 2010.

AirZim is currently servicing the Harare-Bulawayo and Harare-Victoria Falls routes in Zimbabwe. On the Harare-Johannesburg flights, introduced in November last year, AirZim has been using its recently leased Airbus.

Last month, AirZim reintroduced flights on the Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route, where competition is cutthroat. Taruvinga said the airline was still finding its feet on the route.

“People are still getting used to the new service on the Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route,” she said. On the Harare-Durban route, AirZim will compete with South African Express.