FASTJET GOES INTO OVERDRIVE AHEAD OF ZIMBABWE FLIGHT LAUNCH
(Posted 08th October 2015)
When Fastjet Zimbabwe yesterday announced the launch date for their first route, from Harare to Victoria Falls on the 28th of October, and opened sales at an entry level of US Dollars 20 plus taxes and regulatory fees, one way, were hundreds of tickets sold in a matter of hours already, some as far ahead as February 2016.
Richard Bodin, Chief Commercial Officer, in an exclusive phone interview with this correspondent last evening confirmed that the company had appointed one of Harare’s leading travel agencies, Star Travel, as their General Sales Agent for Zimbabwe and that dedicated sales offices will be opened over the coming days and weeks in Harare, Victoria Falls and other key locations across the country, as more domestic destinations are expected to be served.
Flights to Victoria Falls will initially operate three times a week but when the new airport extension – an expanded runway and new passenger terminal are nearing completion – will be opened and more international traffic stream into Vic Falls, is an increase of the flight schedule to sooner rather than later daily flights almost inevitable.
While Richard was understandably not specific as to the regional destinations Fastjet expects to be designated by the Zimbabwe Civil Aviation Authority it is an open secret that flights to Johannesburg and Lusaka are high on the agenda. So of course are flights to other regional capitals across Southern and Eastern Africa with Dar es Salaam already served daily out of Dar.
Subject to getting landing rights according to the existing Bilateral Air Service Agreements Zimbabwe has in place will Fastjet place a second aircraft in Harare and procurement has already started for another Airbus A319. Richard in fact expressed his supreme confidence in the Zimbabwe venture when he said ‘I personally think we will be at four airframes [aviation speak for aircraft] in Zimbabwe by the end of next year’.
Considering that Fastjet Tanzania has flown month after month since the airline’s launch into new record territory vis a vis passengers uplifted is it expected that Zimbabweans too will quickly shift their loyalty to the new airline, which in Tanzania has a 95 percent on time departure record and given tens of thousands of Tanzanians the chance to fly with fares they can afford, allowing them to shift from the hazards of road transport to the much safer air transport.
Watch this space when in the morning additional breaking news will be revealed here as Fastjet now clearly is on the roll, or rather flying high through the African skies as THE emerging Pan African Low Cost Carrier.
