Hosia Mviringi
Eurowings Discover, a subsidiary of one of Europe’s biggest airline group, Lufthansa, will be launching flights into Victoria Falls beginning the first quarter of 2022.
The airline becomes the latest to show confidence in Victoria Falls as a premier tourism destination and the announcement is a seal of approval on Zimbabwe’s aviation business environment.
The Airline begins flights into Victoria Falls on March 30, 2022.
Speaking during a Virtual launch, Lufthansa General Manager Southern and East Africa Dr André Schultz said they are in the process of expanding its Sub-Sahara presence.
“As a leading aviation company, we believe in connecting people through a reliable and comprehensive route network, allowing our guests to have an even greater variety of choice when planning their upcoming vacation or business trip.
It is with this in mind and great excitement, that through Eurowings Discover, we are additionally able to further expand our Sub-Sahara Africa route network, by adding a brand new destination to our portfolio: Victoria Falls. From 30th March 2022, the Lufthansa Group will for the first time in our history, operate a tag flight from Windhoek to Victoria Falls three times a week. Thus, bringing our Eurowings Discover African portfolio up to six leisure destinations in the region,” he said.
The entry of Eurowings into Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls is testament of the important position that the destination occupies globally as a prime tourist destination.
Welcoming participants to the airline’s virtual briefing on Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls International Airport Manager Mr Ronnie Masawi said the momentous occasion was a culmination of close collaboration between the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, the Airports Company of Zimbabwe and the parent Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development as well as a dedicated team from the new partners at Eurowings Discover Airlines.
The Frankfurt based airline will launch services into Victoria Falls with a three weekly frequency from Windhoek Namibia where the airline already has daily direct flights from Frankfurt, Germany.
The airline is positive that if the new route is successful there is scope to upgrade its services into Victoria Falls into daily direct flights from Frankfurt.
Eurowings is better poised to dominate the Euro-Africa travel segment as it is fully embedded on the extensive Lufthansa Airlines network.
The service operates three weekly return flights on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from Windhoek from where passengers are connected to destinations in Europe.
The Airline’s penetration strategy is based on the tourist travel segment but their ultimate goal is to expand into business travel as well. It is hoped that this will strengthen demand and encourage the airline to offer direct flights into Zimbabwe.
Airports Company of Zimbabwe Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr Tawanda Gusha, thanked the government of Zimbabwe for remaining steadfast in its commitment to open up the Zimbabwean skies as an enabler towards attaining aspirations espoused under the National Development Strategy 1 document and Vision 2030 of an Upper Middle Income Economy.
“I want to thank the leadership of the government of Zimbabwe in terms of opening up the skies through the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development and the support we continue to get from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and Hospitality Industry.
So this is in line with the government’s National Development Strategy and Vision 2030,” said Mr Masawi.
This latest development is a major show of confidence and a seal of approval for the efforts undertaken by the government of Zimbabwe to contain the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, which has wreaked havoc in the major world tourism market.
In May this year, Zimbabwe announced that Victoria Falls had attained the coveted herd immunity as the City managed to vaccinate its whole population against the novel coronavirus.
Recently Zimbabwe got another world approval for its effort as the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) upgraded, Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 risk status to Low Risk, meaning that tourists and business travelers can safely travel to Zimbabwe without seeking travel advisory.
This latest ranking propels Zimbabwe to the top of world travel and tourism destinations and it is a good omen for the recovery of the tourism sector after suffering the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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