South African Airline Considers Stopping Flights to Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls

Text of report by privately-owned Zimbabwean weekly newspaper The Standard website on 19 July

[Report by Ndamu Sandu: "SAA Pulls the Plug on Zim Tourism"]

South African Airways (SAA) is mulling routing its Johannesburg- Victoria Falls flights to Livingstone in Zambia in a major blow to Zimbabwe’s ailing tourism industry, authoritative sources said last week.

Standardbusiness heard that officials at SAA recently held a meeting with the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) where they announced the airline would no longer fly into Victoria Falls.

Stung by the SAA decision, there have been frantic efforts to persuade the airline to stay put on the route, said sources familiar with the developments.

To this end, officials at the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority are keen to persuade SAA to rescind its decision in a last bid to bolster confidence in the ailing tourism sector.

But SAA Country Manager, Winnie Mudariki poured cold water on the pending pull out insisting the airline was staying put on the Victoria Falls route.

“There is no way we can pull out of the Victoria Falls route,” she said.

The pull out from Victoria Falls route means that tourists intending to visit one of the Seven Wonder of the World will have to come via Harare before connecting to the resort town. With the unreliability of the national airline, Air Zimbabwe, industry players said the country would lose out on arrivals from South Africa.

Players in the industry told Standardbusiness that the pull-out, if effected would be a blow to the industry.

“It’s like a vote of no confidence to a destination,” an executive said. “SAA is a respected airline.”

Besides killing the perception about a destination, the routing of the flights to Livingstone will hit hard on the pocket, insiders said.

SAA flies twice daily into Victoria Falls and players in the industry said on average each flight has 120 high-spending tourists from the major source markets – Germany, UK, Japan and US.

The tourists spend an average of two bed nights and the tourism industry will lose over 400 bed nights, a blow at a time the sector said arrivals were peaking up.

CAAZ will lose on departure fees. At an average of 120 passengers per flight and with departure fees of US$30 a passenger, CAAZ would lose US$7 200 a day.

Standardbusiness also heard that CAAZ will lose US$1 000 a day in landing fees.

For the past eight years, the country has witnessed the withdrawal of reputable airlines citing viability problems.

Airlines to desert Zimbabwe include British Airways, Swiss Air, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France and Zambian Airways.

Ethiopian Airlines almost pulled out in November but had “an eleventh hour” change of heart.

Originally published by The Standard website, Harare, in English 19 Jul 08.

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