Royal Zambian Airlines has just added a layer of competition in the air travel space by being the second local carrier to fly into Johannesburg from Zambia’s capital Lusaka. The airline offers 4 return flights a week on a flexible ticket basis on condition changes are made within 24 hours (an offer second to none in the market). Air travel has had a turbulent year following lockdown protocols that saw various dependent sectors such as hotel and tourism and general business activity both locally and globally, depress. However with the subsiding of cases, economies have started to reopen as the world seeks to claw back eroded growth. For Zambia, this means a busy airport with increased traffic flows which in-turn mean more airport taxes and activity in the KKIA economy.
Royal Air Charters has been flying locally yet its strategy started to evolve as disease pandemic effects heightened when there was need to fly into jurisdictions on charter basis to ferry citizens back home. One of these areas was South Africa the worst hit African nation. RAC took the initiative further to introduce permanent flights into Africa’s most industrialized nation, tapping into the demand that initially was serviced by airlines such as South African Airline – SAA that is since grappling with liquidity and solvency issues. December 17 was a landmark day for Royal Zambian Airlines as it took its debut flight between Lusaka and Johannesburg.
“An hour later after Air Botswana landed, we welcomed Royal Zambian Airlines on her inaugural international flight between Lusaka and Johannesburg. It is great to see more Zambian Airlines operating international routes and more international airlines resuming operations into Zambia,” Zambia Airports Corporation Brand and Communications Manager Mweembe Sikaulu said on her LinkedIn page.
Much as though it was an epic day for the Royal Zambian Airline, it was a brace for Zambia Airports Corporation (ZAC) to see two airlines court the Zambian skies signaling increased air travel pulse especially post COVID. Kenyan Airways, Emirates, Airlink and RwandAir are some of the key airlines that have resumed flights to the copper producer.
The Kwacha Arbitrageur