Zambia Airways

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Not to be confused with Zambian Airways.
Zambia Airways
IATA ICAO Call sign
ZN AZB AIR ZAMBIA
FoundedAugust 19, 2018 (2018-08-19)
Commenced operationsDecember 2021 (2021-12)
HubsKenneth Kaunda International Airport
Fleet size2[1]
Destinations5
Parent companyZambian Industrial Development Corporation
HeadquartersLusaka, Zambia
Key peopleThomas Gebreyohannes, CEO[citation needed]
Websitewww.zambia-airways.com

Zambia Airways is the

Republic of Zambia. The airline is based in Lusaka, Zambia with its hub at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport
.

Originally, the airline was founded in April 1964. It was liquidated by the government in December 1994 due to political issues but revived again with the help of Ethiopian Airlines and the Zambian Industrial Development Corporation on December 1, 2021. The government took a 55% stake in the newly relaunched Zambia Airways with Ethiopian Airlines owning the remaining 45% of the shares. Ethiopian has planned to set up hubs all around the continent in a 15-year plan called Vision 2025 that will see it become the leading aviation group in Africa.[2]

The new airline launched with flights from

737-800, bringing the total number of fleet to two. Further expansion plans would see the airline aim to operate six aircraft: four Dash 8-400s and two B737-800s, and carry over 700,000 passengers by 2027.[citation needed
]

History

Zambia Airways (1964–1967)

On 1 January 1964, a reconstitution of

Elisabethville service, previously flown by CAA, was launched on a weekly basis. The domestic routes were generally unprofitable and they were supported by the profits generated with CAA's international operations.[4]

In 1967,

Alitalia was selected to run the airline after Zambia Airways's splitting from CAA later that year. Pan African Air Services and Flying Tiger Line also participated as bidders for the management contract. In July, a new airport was inaugurated in Lusaka. The same year, CAA was dissolved within months, and CAA's former subsidiary Zambia Airways became the state-owned national airline on 1 September 1967.[4]

Zambia Airways Corporation (1967–1994)

On 1 September 1967, following the Zambia Airways Act, which appointed the carrier to operate both domestically and internationally after the collapse of CAA, Zambia Airways Corporation was formed in order to take over Zambia Airways, the former CAA's subsidiary. Technical and management assistance was provided by Alitalia. The first general manager was Franceso Casale. Two

Douglas DC-8-43, on wet-lease from Alitalia, permitted the carrier to start, in November 1968, a service from Lusaka to London with intermediate stops at Nairobi and Rome. The introduction of this route doubled the length of Zambia Airways' network to 12,000 miles (19,000 km). Mauritius was first served in November 1969.[4]

Harare International Airport in 1992. This particular aircraft, 9J-AEG, was delivered new to the airline in 1976.[5]

February 1970 saw the upgauge of frequencies to London, with a second flight operated along the Lusaka–Nairobi–London run. Two

Boeing 737-200 Advanced directly from the aircraft manufacturer in June 1975, a Boeing 737 had been wet-leased from Aer Lingus.[7] The ordered 737 was intended as a replacement for the wet-leased aircraft;[10] it entered service in late June 1976.[5] On 14 May 1977, a Boeing 707 was involved in an accident with fatalities near Lusaka.[7]

Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport
in 1989.

The contract for managerial and technical assistance with Aer Lingus ended in March 1982, when a three-year agreement for the provision of operational and technical expertise was signed with

Dar-es-Salaam, Harare, Johannesburg, Larnaca, London, Mauritius, Nairobi and Rome with a fleet of one DC-10-30, four Boeing 707-320Cs, one Boeing 737-200 and two HS-748s.[11] In December 1985, two Boeing 707-320Cs were transferred to NACZ.[7]

The airline's sole Boeing 757 freighter at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in 1991. This aircraft was destroyed in a mid-air collision in 2002 while operating with another airline.

Aimed at returning the carrier to profitability,

ATR-42s were ordered in 1987.[13] In April 1988, the company launched flights to New York via Monrovia on the DC-10.[14][15][16] The service grew popular with South Africans, who travelled from Johannesburg to Lusaka on a Zambia Airways or South African Airways flight. This journey was the quickest route from South Africa to the United States; because of apartheid, the US had prohibited direct flights between the countries in 1986.[16][17] While the Zambian government also opposed apartheid, the country was facing economic hardship and needed the money that Zambia Airways was earning from the route. A lounge was constructed in the Lusaka airport for the passengers changing planes.[16]

The ATR-42s entered the fleet during the summer of 1988, and came to replace the HS-748s on domestic and regional routes. Later on, one of these brand new ATR-42s was damaged while landing, but nobody was seriously injured.

McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30.[19] A Boeing 757 freighter leased from Ansett Worldwide Aviation made Zambia Airways the second non-American carrier, after Ethiopian Airlines, in operating the type.[20]

The Gulf War and the easing of sanctions on South Africa caused financial difficulties for the airline.[21] In March 1991, Zambia Airways suspended its service to New York, which then operated via Banjul.[7][22] By that month, it had also closed its offices in New York and Tokyo and dropped plans to fly to Bangkok. Cost-cutting measures resulted in the dismissal of a number of employees as well.[21] Services to Lubumbashi were re-introduced in 1992 after the war forced their suspension.[7] Zambia Airways went out of business in December 1994.[23] Mounting debts and losses forced the government to put the carrier into liquidation that month.[24]

Zambia Airways (2021-present)

On October 24, 2018, the Republic of Zambia was bound to relaunch the old national airline, Zambia Airways, however the airline did not get off the ground until December 1, 2021 due to long delays by the government and the COVID-19 pandemic. On 20 August 2018, Ethiopian Airlines signed a definitive agreement with the Zambian Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), to acquire 45 percent shareholding in the revived air carrier for US$30 million.[25] The plan is to start with local and regional routes and expand to intercontinental routes later. The revamped airline plans to operate 12 planes by 2028.[25] However in early 2019, the relaunch was delayed a second time as the airline's new board of directors had not met.[26] On 8 August 2019 the government of Zambia delayed the relaunch of the airline again after Zambia's Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) sent a message stating that the airline should not be relaunched until Zambia was in a better economical state.[27] The airline, in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, sent 25 flight attendants on 18 September 2019 to the Ethiopian Aviation Academy for a three-month training program. In addition, Zambia Airways' CEO Bruk Endeshaw stated that the airline will help grow the economy of Zambia and bring back the Zambian aviation industry back to its glory days.[28]

Destinations

As of December 2021, Zambia Airways operated to the following destinations:[citation needed]

Country City Airport Notes Refs
Kenya Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport [29]
South Africa Johannesburg O. R. Tambo International Airport [citation needed]
Tanzania Dar es Salaam Julius Nyerere International Airport [29]
Zambia Livingstone
Harry Mwanga Nkumbula International Airport
Lusaka Kenneth Kaunda International Airport Hub [30]
Mfuwe Mfuwe Airport
Ndola Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport
Solwezi Solwezi Airport [31]
Zimbabwe Harare Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport

Codeshare agreements

Fleet

Current fleet

As of June 2024, Zambia Airways operates the following aircraft.

Zambia Airways fleet
Aircraft In service Orders Passengers Notes
C Y Total
Boeing 737-700 1 — — 189 189 [33]
Total 1 -

Historical fleet

References

  1. ^ "Revival - from A-Zambia". Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Zambia Airways sets late 4Q21 launch plan in motion". ch-aviation. Retrieved 13 December 2021.(subscription required)
  3. ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1
    , retrieved 29 September 2023
  4. ^ a b c d Guttery (1998), p. 218.
  5. ^ a b "Air transport (see image caption at the bottom left of the page)". Flight International. 110 (3515): 209. 24 July 1976. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
  6. ^ "World airline directory—National Air Charter Zambia (NCAZ)". Flight International. 108 (3445): 495. 20 March 1975. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Guttery (1998), p. 219.
  8. ^ "Airliner market". Flight International. 107 (3440): 227. 13 February 1975. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
  9. ^ "Airliner market". Flight International. 108 (3445): 442. 20 March 1975. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
  10. ^ "Airliner market". Flight International. 107 (3458): 962. 19 June 1975. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
  11. ^
    ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 4 December 2018.
  12. ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 5 December 2018.
  13. ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 5 December 2018.
  14. ISBN 978-9982-896-08-5
    .
  15. ^ "Travel Advisory". The New York Times. 17 July 1988. ProQuest 426887576.
  16. ^ a b c Harden, Blaine (30 July 1988). "Zambia's Airline Finds a Niche in Sanctions Against S. Africa". The Washington Post. ProQuest 307052873.
  17. ^ "Latest Sanctions from U.S.: Flights to and from South Africa". Orlando Sentinel. United Press International. 15 November 1986. ProQuest 276952591.
  18. ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 16 December 2018.
  19. ^
    ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 5 December 2018.
  20. ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 16 December 2018.
  21. ^
    ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 16 December 2018.
  22. ^ McArthur, Douglas (13 March 1991). "Travel Advisory: Zambia Flights Halted". The Globe and Mail. ProQuest 385495641.
  23. Flightglobal. Flight Airline Business. 1 February 1995. Archived from the original
    on 5 December 2018.
  24. ISSN 0015-3710. Archived
    from the original on 16 December 2018.
  25. ^ a b "Ethiopian Airlines inks $30m deal with Zambia to revive national airline". Business Daily Africa Quoting Reuters. Reuters. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  26. ^ "Zambia : Relaunch of Zambia Airways deferred again". LusakaTimes.com. Lusaka Times. 4 February 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  27. ^ "Zambia : Delay Zambia Airways relaunch-CTPD". LusakaTimes.com. Lusaka Times. 8 August 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  28. ^ "Zambia Airways Airline Profile | CAPA". centreforaviation.com. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  29. ^ a b "Zambia Airways Launches New Services to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya". Zambia Airways. 13 May 2024. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
  30. ^ "Ethiopian Airlines' Affiliate Zambia Airways Set For Launch". Routes. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  31. ^ "Official launch of flights to the North Western Province". Twitter. 24 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  32. ^ https://corporate.ethiopianairlines.com/company/partners-alliance/code-share
  33. ^ "Zambia Airways Fleet | Airfleets aviation".
  34. ^ Ismaaili, Noam (29 November 2021). "New Airline Zambia Airways to Begin Operations December 1". Airways Magazine. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2021.

Bibliography

  • Guttery, Ben R. (1998). Encyclopedia of African Airlines. Jefferson, North Carolina: Mc Farland & Company, Inc.
    ISBN 978-0-7864-0495-7
    .
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