The national airline, Air Zimbabwe, will introduce new flights in December to regional and international destinations, The Chronicle reported on Sunday.

 

Air Zimbabwe spokesperson David Mwenga said some of the new regional flights would link Zimbabwe's major tourist destinations.

 

"We will be flying to new destinations. We will implement this development in December where we will be flying the Harare, Lusaka and Lilongwe route twice a week. We will also introduce the Harare, Lusaka and London route. We are looking into carrying out three flights per week to London and two to Dubai," he said.

 

"Since we are going to revive the Kariba route in the same month we will be flying from Harare, Kariba, Victoria Falls and Johannesburg and back. The other route would be Harare, Bulawayo, Johannesburg, Victoria Falls, Kariba and Harare. The idea is to fly to all the tourist destinations," he said.

 

He said the flights would assist in improving the state of the tourism sector.

 

"The operations that we will be undertaking will enable tourists to come into the country. Tourists will visit these destinations and this will go a long way in boosting the tourism sector. Since we are also in the business of making capital, these flights will also generate revenue for the parastatal," Mwenga said.

 

He said flying through regional destinations would strengthen partnerships with neighboring countries. Air Zimbabwe entered into a code-sharing partnership with Air Malawi and Air Tanzania. The issue of partnerships is very crucial to Air Zimbabwe. Flying to London through Zambia will boost partnerships with Zambia Skyways.

 

"Since we signed a code sharing partnership with Air Malawi, flying to this country will also bring in more people to the region and strengthen cooperation between Zimbabwe and Malawi," he said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)