ZIMBABWE: Flyafrica ZimbabweTo Become flyafricazim

Flyafrica Zimbabwe plans to relaunch flights under a slightly different name – flyafricazim – with the backing of new investors.

The airline terminated its franchise agreement with the Flyafrica group after the parent company was placed into liquidation earlier this year.

The ‘new’ airline owns the Flyafrica brand name in Zimbabwe and can therefore continue to operate under this name, says the company’s principle investor and Chairperson, Cassidy Mugwagwa. Additional investors have been signed on to the tune of US$25 million (€21.6 million) to develop a pan-African operation, says Cassidy.

The airline plans to begin operations on the Johannesburg-Harare route from mid-May. Flyafricazim also plans to establish operations between Johannesburg and Bulawayo as well as domestic routes within Zimbabwe.

After the termination of its franchise agreement with Flyafrica Ltd, Cassidy says flyafricazim needed to source new aircraft, reservation support, as well as web support and marketing. The company has done this through its purchase of Airconnect, which Cassidy explains handled many of these functions for Flyafrica in the past. “Contracts have also been entered into with other service providers. Aircraft have been sourced from Star Air Cargo and key staff, who originally worked for Flyafrica Ltd, have also been retained – so we are good to go.”

Not unlike the original flyafrica.com LCC model, the new airline’s strategy is to operate in a number of different countries “in order to spread its common expenses”, says Cassidy. “Unlike the Flyafrica Ltd model, which relied on the head airline in Zimbabwe to fund the five countries in which the airline operated, each country must be profitable, operate with a local partner and be able to sustain itself with minimal operating financial support from head office. In other words, one country must not be able to pull another down,” he says. The airline aims to launch subsidiary airlines in four countries over the next two years.