Zim’s air traffic passenger volume sees 13,4pc uptick

THE volume of Zimbabwe’s air transport passengers rose by 13,4 percent to 436 022 in the second quarter of this year buoyed by various initiatives instituted by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) to attract foreign airlines into the country.

This followed the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism industry.

Since its inception, President Mnangagwa’s Government has vigorously pursued an agenda to transform the country into an upper middle-income country by 2030. On the tourism front, this is being done through the implementation of the ‘Open Skies Policy’.

Several foreign airlines have in the last few years either started or resumed flights into Zimbabwe and these include Fastjet, Airlink, Cemair, South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, KLM and Eurowings Discover.

The tourism sector is one of Zimbabwe’s major economic centerpieces and was hardest hit when countries around the world imposed travel restrictions and national lockdowns to combat spread of the pandemic.

Last year the Government gradually relaxed restrictions as countries across the world variably contained the respiratory infection disease, which killed millions of people across the globe.

According to a transport statistics report for the second quarter to June 2023 released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) this week, air transport passengers in the first quarter to March 2023 were 384,645.

“All airports recorded an increase in the number of passengers during the second quarter 2023 when compared to 1st quarter 2023,” said the agency.

The report indicates that during the second quarter under review, Zimbabwe’s largest airport, Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport recorded 293 922 air traffic passengers compared to 278 212 in the prior quarter followed by Victoria Falls International Airport which 93 145 against 66 254 in the previous quarter.

Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport which is in the country’s second biggest city, Bulawayo, during the period under review had 40 471 air traffic passengers, reflecting a 9,9 percent increase from 36 812 registered at the end of the quarter to March 2023.

Other airports found across the country such as Buffalo Range and Kariba, Zimstat indicated that these registered a combined 152 percent increase in air transport passengers to 8 484 during the quarter under review compared to 3 367 recorded in the three months ended March 31, 2023. In the quarter under review, Zimstat said all airports reported more flights (excluding military flights) than were in the first quarter of the year.

The volume of air traffic to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls, increased by 33,2 percent to 3 815 compared to 2 864 in the prior quarter while RG Mugabe International Airport recorded a 23 percent spike to 6 562.

JM Nkomo International Airport had a 17,7 percent increase in flights to 1 547 in the period under review while other airports excluding the major ones, recorded a combined 134,3 percent improvement to 3 369.

In an interview, ZTA head of corporate affairs Godfrey Koti attributed the positive growth in air transport passengers and flights to the post-Covid-19 pandemic activities that have seen the country’s tourism sector and across the globe opening up.

“What’s attributing to the growth of the air transport passengers and flights is just because of the post-pandemic activities that we have seen in the tourism sector obviously coming from the background of the increased number of arrivals that we saw in the last two quarters.

“Tourist arrivals in the country in the last two quarters have been on an upward trend and that largely speaks to the efforts put in place also from a marketing perspective of the destination both from a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) perspective and the leisure side of things,” he said.

ZTA has indicated that Zimbabwe’s tourist arrivals in the first six months of the year spiked by a whopping 50 percent margin to 529 078, a development that also signaled the country’s tourism sector’s strong recovery from Covid-19.

“From a leisure point of view again, we have seen a very huge growth, particularly on the regional side of things where South Africa is one of our biggest contributors and we have also seen a lot of people coming from Rwanda … and those numbers have contributed significantly in terms of growth into our arrivals.”

On the domestic front, Mr Koti said quite a number of trips have also been undertaken where 4,4 million trips have been accounted for in the first six months of the year hoping to surpass last year’s figures that stood at about 12,8 million.

“So the activities there, aviation is right at the top of the access travel. We also work hand in hand with the Airports Company of Zimbabwe which has taken the lead in creating routes that come to Zimbabwe (all airports in the country).

“And just a few days ago, we were launching the inaugural flight for Flysafair that is an attestation and those are the strategies that have been employed by destination Zimbabwe to try and lure aircraft; and conversations have been back and forth for other bigger and wide-bodied aircraft and now we’re trying to really push for the long-haul aircraft as well to come through into the country,” he said.-herald