Zambia Airways will debut its regional operations with thrice-weekly flights between Lusaka and Harare from March 28, as the relaunched national carrier seeks to achieve its goal of carrying 1.9 million passengers annually by 2028.

The airline was relaunched in December 2021 through a partnership between the Zambian Government, the Industrial Development Corporation and Ethiopian Airlines. It has initially operated as a domestic carrier, but recently announced that it had secured long-awaited foreign operator permits to kickstart regional expansion.

The Harare route will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with return flights scheduled for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The route will be flown by the 90-seater DHC-8-Q400 aircraft.

According to the company’s website, the airline will soon open other regional routes, including Johannesburg, Livingstone, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kinshasa. Earlier in March, the airline acquired a B737-800, which is expected to be used on the Johannesburg route.

At the launch of the airline, Frank Tayali, Zambia’s Minister of Transport and Logistics, stated the airline’s intention to rapidly expand.

“It is expected that the new Zambia Airways will operate 12 aircraft and carry over 1.9 million passengers by 2028. We accept being a government of a land-locked country, but we won’t accept being ‘sky-locked’, therefore, our full support is guaranteed to Zambia Airways by assured innovative and effective aviation sub-sector policies and strategies,” Tayali said.