Published: 15 July 2014

LOW-COST airline Fly Africa, which begins plying the Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route tomorrow, is eyeing local routes as well, officials have said.

The airline is a partnership between the Professor Chakanyuka Karase-led Fresh  Air and aviation mogul Mike Bond of the now defunct One Time airline of South Africa.

On Saturday, the company successfully conducted a trial flight between Victoria Falls and Harare using a 120–seater Boeing 737-500.

About two dozen passengers who flew into Victoria Falls on Saturday reportedly paid R100.

"We started with Fresh Air when I met Mati Karase in 2010 while I was into aircraft leasing and got off with One Time airline. We then formed Fly Africa Zimbabwe as a venture between Fresh Air and One Time," said Bond.

He said the Fly Africa brand would have many airlines, Fly Africa Zimbabwe being one of them.

"There is a lot of preparation on the operation side as we want to comply with regulations because aviation safety is critical and we have finished all processes as we speak," said Bond.

"We have a fleet of five aircraft now each with a capacity of about 120 meaning we are very ready."

The airline will be charging from about $50 a trip between Victoria Falls and Johannesburg whose scheduled flights start on Wednesday.

It will start with three return flights a  week.

"We spent a lot of money on marketing but we are going to put the cheapest fares on market. We are convinced with our business model which is similar to Air Asia, the best airline in the world," he said.

The new airline plans to fly several return commuter trips domestically and Bond said they were still engaging authorities on opening of more routes.

Country manager and co-founder Mati Karase said the airline was there to stay as they had purchased their own craft.

"When our partners were liquidated in South Africa that reduced operations because we were using their aircraft. This time we bought a fleet of our own and we are here to service the skies," he said.

Professor Karase said they were planning on more commuter flights as there was a market in those travellers who use luxury coaches between major cities.

"We really wanted to be compliant with regulations which is why we spent about five years preparing. We are planning to do more commuter triangular routes between Bulawayo-Harare and Victoria Falls and later go regional.

"This is a low cost airline where we are saying we want to demystify flying as we bring a new revolution that everybody including rural people can fly.

"This is our first flight and we hope we will be successful," he said.

"People want to travel and do business and here is a way of saving time than to travel by bus for about 12 hours. The initial phase will have three flights a week between Victoria Falls and Johannesburg before we introduce the local flights and go regional to neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Angola and DRC."

If granted permission to service local routes the airline will bring competition to national airline Air Zimbabwe that enjoys a monopoly on domestic routes.

Prof Karase said they chose to start with the Victoria Falls route due to the centrality of the resort town as the country's hub of tourism.
- chronicle

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