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Leonard Ncube

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SOUTH Africa’s Airlink has announced plans to launch scheduled flights between Mbombela in South Africa’s Empumalanga to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe later this year.

The new route will complement the airline’s existing service between Mbombela’s Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA) and Livingstone on the Zambian side.

“We will be launching flights between Mbombela (Nelspruit) and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, from 28 November 2023.

“The new service to Victoria Falls expands our direct connections between Southern Africa’s prime tourist attractions, the Kruger National Park and surroundings Victoria Falls as well as Cape Town and the Garden Route,” said the airline CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster.

 “The new route provides travellers with a greater choice of itineraries using direct Airlink flights and without having to connect via Johannesburg.

The airline will use modern Embraer regional jets for the service to fly three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

To facilitate the new service, Airlink will adjust its KMIA-Livingstone flights to four per week. The airline launched daily service flights between Victoria Falls and Johannesburg last year.

The Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route connects the region’s main economic hub, Johannesburg with the iconic tourism destination of Victoria Falls.

A majority of tourists fly into Victoria Falls from Europe via Johannesburg from where they connect to the resort city. Airlink already operates daily flight services between Victoria Falls and Cape Town except Saturdays.

Improving access into Victoria Falls is one of the areas of focus by the Zimbabwean Government and tourism industry in line with the Tourism Growth and Recovery Strategy.

This is envisaged to increase arrivals and connect the destination to every part of the world, making Victoria Falls a world tourism hub.

Airlink was established in 1992 and is an independent, privately-owned and premium airline serving more than 45 destinations in 13 countries throughout Southern Africa, Madagascar and St Helena Island.

Besides Airlink, other airlines landing in Victoria Falls are Fastjet, Mack Air, Kenyan Airways, Eurowings, Air Zimbabwe, Ethiopian Airways as well as Kuva from Harare.