A new commercial airline, Rainbow Airlines, hopes to take off next week with three weekly flights between Harare, Zimbabwe, and Johannesburg, South Africa, using a 50-seat Bombardier CRJ100 aircraft.

Routes from Harare to Cape Town and Victoria Falls are also on the cards.

However, when Tourism Update spoke to the airline, it had yet to confirm its schedule as the Civil Aviation Authority in Zimbabwe still had to sign off on its flight time. The airline expects to operate its flights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

CAAZ has granted the airline a licence to operate.

The airline, which has previously attempted to take off without success was granted the go-ahead to operate by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe last month.

According to reports, Rainbow Airlines CE, Ed Berry, said the company had decided to invest in Zimbabwe because the climate was ripe for investment.

The airline has entered into a partnership with South African airline CemAir, which will lease aircraft to Rainbow Airlines and provide technical and maintenance support. Berry said once the airline was established, it would add other routes from Harare such as Nairobi, Lubumbashi, Kinshasa, Beira, Maputo and Durban, and Bulawayo to Johannesburg. “Rainbow Airlines hopes to become the most preferred airline in Zimbabwe and then in the region.”