Fastjet has been ramping up its services between South Africa and Zimbabwe since the reopening of borders. The low-cost airline, which is currently operating five flights a day between Johannesburg and Harare and five flights a week between Johannesburg and Bulawayo, reintroduced its Johannesburg-Victoria Falls service this week.
The Victoria Falls flights operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, using a 50-seat Embraer ERJ145 aircraft. The flights depart Johannesburg at 11h10, arriving in Victoria Falls at 12h50, the return flight departs at 13h20 and arrives in OR Tambo at 14h55.
Fastjet’s chief commercial officer, Julian Edmunds, told Travel News that the airline had also been ramping up services on its domestic flights within Zimbabwe, as many Zimbabwean families that usually travelled abroad were planning domestic breaks during December. This was due to travel restrictions and the current prohibitive costs of PCR tests. He said the tests could easily add up to an additional USD500 (R7 600) for a trip for a family of four people. Within Zimbabwe, fastjet offers flights between Harare and Victoria Falls and between Harare and Bulawayo.
The airline has rights to fly between KMIA and Victoria Falls but Julian said the route had not been introduced yet due to the slow return of international tourism.
He said while fastjet had been kept quite busy with repatriation flights during lockdown, the airline was delighted to be able to reintroduce scheduled services. He told Travel News that the carrier had made it through the lockdown travel ban without retrenching a single staff member.