“WE will be getting our customers from Mbudzi, Roadport, Mbare Musika and everywhere where there are kombis (commuter omnibuses),” said a Fastjet employee.
“We are a low-cost airline, in the truest sense of the word and our fares at the end of the day will be much lower than those incurred travelling by road.”
Fastjet, Africa’s low-cost airline, last week launched Fastjet Zimbabwe which will initially service the lucrative Harare-Victoria Falls route.
“We are bringing safe, reliable and affordable service to more people,” said chief executive of Fastjet, Ed Winter.
“It is a Zimbabwean airline, run by Zimbabweans for Zimbabweans.”
For a long time, air travel has been a preserve of the elite with the not-so-rich having to be content with spending hours on the road.
“This is the notion that we, at Fastjet Zimbabwe, are busting,” said the fellow from Fastjest whom I shared a seat with on the maiden flight between Harare and Victoria Falls.
“Air travel is not a preserve (of) the rich.”
He had interesting stories that he told as he delivered to me a crash course on low cost airlines.
“In Tanzania we are flying on a daily basis fishmongers, vendors and first-time fliers, people (who) are no different from the hardworking men and women we have at Mbare Musika or at Mupedzanhamo flee market,” he said.
“Not flying will, in the country, be a result of lack of knowledge or information, not a monetary issue.
“Our service is affordable to a level that enables a vendor selling reed baskets or some other wares, a small and medium business operator and a first-time flier to share a seat.”
Experts say the coming onto the market of Fastjet Zimbabwe will help boost on-going efforts to revamp the economy left in a comatose by more than a decade of battering from the European Union (EU) and US-imposed sanctions.
“Convenience and ease of doing business is what we are experiencing,” said a safari operator on the inaugural flight.
According to director of flight operations, Ed Lanca: “Very simply, our goal is to offer affordable air fares that empower more Zimbabweans to fly, whether it is for business, tourism or for visiting their family and friends.”
The low-cost carrier, to celebrate its launch will, until the end of the month (November), be charging US$20 one way from Harare to Victoria Falls.
However, Government and airport taxes of US$18 gets the inclusive one way fare to US$38.
The carrier, which plans to add more flights to Victoria Falls will use an Airbus A319 with a seating capacity of up to 144 passengers on the route.
Initially the airliner will fly between Harare and Victoria Falls three times a week; Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with more flights added as demand increases.
Fastjet plans in the near future to do the Harare-Bulawayo, Harare-Johannesburg routes.
“To give you an idea of the sort of traffic we are looking to stimulate, there are up to 100 buses a day operating between Harare and Johannesburg and our lowest fare is cheaper than the bus and certainly, in terms of time, risk and hassle at borders, flying is by far the better option,” group’s chief commercial officer, Richard Bodin, is on record saying.
“We are also looking at the opportunity to fly to Cape Town from here, and also Durban,” he said.
The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Joram Gumbo described the coming on board of the airliner in the aviation industry as a boon to the economy.
“The country needs bold new enterprises like Fastjet Zimbabwe to assist the Government achieve its objective of growing the economy,” said Gumbo.
“It is a long-term strategic investment in the future of our economy, in the future of our tourism industry and in the ability of all Zimbabweans to travel by air domestically and internationally both for business and leisure, at an affordable and fair price.”