THE Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) has granted Foreign Operator Permits (FOP) to Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) and Zambia Airways to operate passenger and cargo services in and outbound Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport
The development is a further endorsement to the country’s ‘Open Skies Policy’, as more airlines are flying into Zimbabwe.
Commenting on the development, CAAZ director general Dr Engineer Elijah Chingosho said: “We are excited about the positive prospects for 2023 in line with the national Vision 2030 and guided by the National Development Strategy 1(NDS1), as we implement the Government initiated Open Skies Policy, positioning our economy for more trade, investment and tourism”.
Details on the commencement date and frequencies of flights will be announced by the respective airlines in due course. Recently, Eswatini Air said it had received its FOP for Zimbabwe and is awaiting another for South Africa.
“Since the approval of our Air Operator Certificate (AOC), several preparatory and post-AOC actions have been initiated. We have made tremendous progress in securing the necessary documentation to operate to the different destinations we will be flying to.
“So far, we have revived our Foreign Operator Permit (FOP) for Zimbabwe, and the FOP for South Africa is in the process. We expect to have everything regarding that smoothed out,” reads part of the statement from the airline.
The airline said following the allocation of airline codes by the International Air Transport Association and by the International Civil Aviation Organisation used for airline identification, it applied landing and departure slots at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
The airline envisages taking to the skies at the beginning of the next IATA season, which begins on 26 March. When Zimbabwe’s Second Republic came into being in 2017, just three airlines were utilising the country’s airspace. Now 18 airlines are flying into the country.
The Government has vowed to upscale momentum through enhancing aviation infrastructure modernisation in line with global standards. – The Chronicle
