Zambia Airways set to fly again by mid this year
By Nawa Mutumweno – Government says it has been holding talks with various aviation stakeholders to realise its plan to re-establish the long-awaited national airline by mid this year, it has been learnt.
According to Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Yamfwa Mukanga, Government has in the recent past engaged plane manufacturing firms such as Boeing and other partners on the development of the airline.
The Civil Aviation Authority Board has since been constituted to facilitate the establishment of the airline.
‘’We are on course and the national airline will be up and running by June,’’ he assured, allaying fears in some quarters that the project has stalled.
Further, the CIA Board has been tasked to appoint an executive director to oversee the operations of the airline.
Government also seeks to engage an equity partner to enable the airline be operationalised under a public private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Following the Patriotic Front (PF) government’s plan to re-align tourism as one of priority economic sectors, Zambia has intensified its resolve to re-establish a national airline to help boost the industry.
The administration has allocated unprecedented allocations to the tourism industry and provided generous tax incentives for the next five years for Zambians wishing to develop tourism infrastructure in national parks.
Zambia Airways was liquidated in 1994 after some operational problems. Since then the country has had no national carrier with the private sector moving in to fill the void but not matching up to the standard. In recent times, there has been Zambian Airways and Zambezi Airlines which have ‘fallen by the wayside. Currently, the only Zambian-owned airline is Proflight which flies domestically and in the region (Malawi and Tanzania).
