Zambia’s state-run airline, Zambia Airways has resumed flights, 27 years after it was liquidated in 1994.
On 20 August 2018, Ethiopian Airlines signed a definitive agreement with the Zambian Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), to acquire 45% shareholding in the revived air carrier for $30 million.
The strategic equity partnership in the launching of Zambia Airways is part of our Vision 2025 multiple hub strategy in Africa. Ethiopian is committed to its growth plan in collaboration with African carriers and the new Zambia Airways will serve as a strong hub in Central and Southern Africa availing domestic, regional and eventually international air connectivity for passengers and cargo to the major destinations in the Middle East, Europe and Asia, which will enhance the socio-economic integration and tourism industry in Zambia and the region.
Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines
Zambia Airways’s Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 plane made its maiden flight from the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka, the country’s capital, to the Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport in Ndola city of the Copperbelt province.
The airline will operate at a frequency of five to six times a week to Ndola and the southern city of Livingstone. It will initially operate domestic routes before introducing regional destinations in South Africa and Zimbabwe in the first quarter of 2022.
Elsewhere, Nigeria’s National Carrier, Nigeria Air, is set to finally take to the skies in April 2022, following the approval of the outline business case for the establishment of the national carrier by the Federal Executive Council (FEC)
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika says the national carrier will be run by a company in which the Nigerian government will hold a 5% stake, Nigerian entrepreneurs holding 46%, while the remaining 49% will be reserved for yet to be assigned strategic equity partners, including foreign investors.
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