Harare-Kigali flight on the cards

Source: Harare-Kigali flight on the cards | The Herald July 16, 2016

Lloyd Gumbo in KIGALI, Rwanda
Government has welcomed RwandAir, Rwanda national airline’s decision to fly to Harare as the two countries seek to boost tourism cooperation.

RwandAir, arguably one of Africa’s fastest growing airlines, having received new aircraft of late while more are still on the way, identified six new routes among them Harare, Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, Lilongwe in Malawi, Cotonou in Benin, Khartoum in Sudan and Bamako in Mali.

Speaking to the media after attending a meeting between President Mugabe and his Rwandan counterpart, President Paul Kagame, here yesterday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi said he informed the two presidents about the tourism opportunities that exist between the two countries.

“I had the occasion courtesy of President Mugabe, who asked me to share briefly where we are on bilateral cooperation with Rwanda on tourism,” said Minister Mzembi.

“I did share that yesterday; I was a guest of Rwanda Airlines at their offices at the airport. We agreed that beginning January, RwandAir will start servicing Harare. So they will be doing Kigali-Lusaka-Harare. We also explored the possibility in the future and not far too-distant of RwandAir doing Harare-Kigali-Guangzhou in China.

“In our third phase, on the back of their acquisitions of new Air- buses even the possibility of them doing Harare-Kigali-London are actually in the horizon. So we are starting naturally with linking and connecting people and going forward to consummating a bilateral tourism Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries.”

Minister Mzembi said he was expected to meet with Rwanda’s Minister of Tourism to start negotiations on the arrangement.

Responding to a question on whether continuing to open up Zimbabwe’s skies to foreign airlines would not affect Air Zimbabwe’s quest for recovery, Minister Mzembi said it was actually good for the national carrier.

“Air Zimbabwe was actually the strongest at the time it was meeting its own point of equilibrium within the context of competition in the 1990s when we had 48 international carriers servicing our destination.

“That is when Air Zimbabwe was at its strongest because it was benefiting from collateral from other airlines.

“It is not enough to try and command the skies alone when you are not able to meet the expectations of the travelling public and the market. So that is brought to the fore by making sure that we open up,” said Minister Mzembi.

Speaking on his endorsement by the AU as Africa’s sole candidate to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation secretary-general’s post, Minister Mzembi said he was elated with the bloc’s decision to rally behind him though he waited for official communication on the decision.

“In terms of our chances, yes I have Africa behind me. We just await official pronouncement to that effect. But any future competition from anywhere across the globe, it’s a serious competition. We think we will land it with support back home, continentally and about two more regions in the world.

“There is a general consensus and understanding within the African Union that the Union must field a single candidate to enhance our chances for landing this post,” said Minister Mzembi.