Itayi Garande granted airline licence

A company owned by Itayi Garande, the former editor of the pro-government website, Talk Zimbabwe.com, has been granted a licence to operate an airline which will offer direct flights to London and other international destinations.

The Zanu PF government has issued an operator’s licence to Vic Falls Airways in which Garande and Masiwa Table are listed as directors. The company’s maiden flight is expected in October. The company will be using hired aircraft.

“The company which already has a B767-200ER aircraft going through a major maintenance check at Harare International Airport will offer weekly direct flights to London (United Kingdom), Guangzhou (China) and Johannesburg (South Africa),” Garande said in a statement.

“The development means that Vic Falls Airways will be the only Zimbabwean airline offering a direct flight to and from London. The opportunities offered through the Open Skies Policy are vast and we took advantage of that government policy to launch at this time,” he said.

Nehanda Radio also understands Vic Falls Airways will fly into Gatwick, London twice a week and there are plans to have the same frequency for Guangzhou and Johannesburg.

This month Air Zimbabwe relaunched its Harare–Kariba–Victoria Falls route after a seven-year hiatus using the 50-seater Chinese-made MA60 planes.

Transport Minister Obert Mpofu was quoted saying “We are at an advanced stage, our technical team is engaging a technical partner who is very keen to service operations with Air Zimbabwe to service the routes to China and London Gateway.”

“We are talking to the Chinese. In fact, Air Zimbabwe will be flying to Shanghai and Beijing very soon. We have a serious invitation, with one serious big airline operation for flights to London and China,” he said.

“In fact, we are receiving more airlines coming into Zimbabwe than going out of Zimbabwe so will be witnessing quite a number of new airlines flying into Harare in the next two months” he added.

Two weeks ago KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) announced plans to suspend its Amsterdam to Harare and Lusaka flights, less than two years after resuming flights into Zimbabwe.

The airline, which had suspended flying into Zimbabwe for 13 years, advised that it will discontinue the flights on October 28, 2014.

“We think the fees are too high for an economical and profitable operation, we think they can come down,” said KLM’s vice president Pieter Bootsma.