Air Zimbabwe adds two more London flights after BA pull-out

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By Lebo Nkatazo

AIR ZIMBABWE announced Friday that it will introduce two more flights to London to fill the gap left by British Airways (BA) which will be pulling out of Zimbabwe next month.

BA announced last week that the route was no longer viable as it was incurring huge losses due to non-availability of jet fuel which is trucked in from neighbouring South Africa.

“Air Zimbabwe is introducing two additional frequencies on its Harare/ London route in its Northern winter schedule in October. The two additional flights will bring the airline’s weekly frequencies on the route to five,” the arline said in a statement.

“The development is part of the airline’s efforts to increase capacity to cater for the Christmas peak season as well as, to some extent, fill the gap left by the withdrawal of its partner British Airways, which announced this week that it was withdrawing direct flights between British and Zimbabwean capitals at the end of October.”

It added that it would announce the days of operations on the routes in due course.

Air Zimbabwe said in recent years, there had been an upsurge in travel between London and Harare due to the increase of locals living overseas.

“The additional flights will offer the market a seat capacity of almost a thousand per week, in comparison to the current 600. This move is also designed to offer foreign currency earning opportunities.”

BA's withdrawal had hit hard Zimbabwean freight companies based in the UK, already reeling from new changes to customs clearence procedures and fees in Harare.

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