Zambia will have its relaunched national airline hit the skies in the third quarter of this year.
This was contained in a statement by Transport and Communications Minister Dr. Brian Mushimba.
Dr Mushimba said partners had a meeting in February to finalize among other things destination routes to Europe and Middle East.
Zambia Airways earlier appointed Bruk Endeshaw Abebe as its Chief Executive Officer and will now look to fill the senior management positions as the launch draws near.
“We are committed to relaunching Zambia Airways to take advantage to the airport infrastructure we have made, in the radars, air navigation system, the best of its kind in the Southern African region, Dr. Mushimba said during a Parliamentary Committee session on Transport works in the week.”
The airline is expected to transport 1.9 million passengers in the next decade to 2028.
Zambia Airways is a joint venture between the Zambian government with 55% stake and Ethiopian airlines holding 45% shares.
We getting tired of this story and u treating us as if we all kids.
Its either u say the truth or u keep quiet
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha……………… ha!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Mushimba only knows fake airways thing in that office. Your storing is boring better to zip your mouth sir nothing productive from your office.
This boy Brian is full of pipe dreams, just like his boss.
What is it about this PF government and loss making ventures?
They can not even improve ZR.
They will soon find out, at the cost of tax payers, that the airline business is not child’s play.
With all due respect friends, this isn’t the best time to start an airline. Not when government coffers are heavily strained by heavy debt. Some of us know first hand how expensive it is to run an airline. It consumes a lot of money and takes time to become sustainable, let alone profitable. This will be a big mistake. Mark my words.
Shut up, Bluffing Mushindo, or is it Boring Mushin…. whatever they call you
Really laughable ….Let me just sit in the front row and watch these foooooools keep kicking the can down the road whilst JUNIOR is clapping on without shame.
Today I will not comment I will just bite my tongue …surely what..no let me not
Twanaka
Revamping the rail would have made double sense; would have benefited ordinary Zambians believe me
That said, Project delays can plague any industry, any team and any individual project. One industry notorious for experiencing frequent and costly delays is the building and construction industry. A project delay can represent a costly occurrence for any organization. Therefore, it is important for an organization to understand what causes a delay and how to prevent delays from occurring.
How can a boma give away 45% shareholding & claim its representing the interest of its people
This joke is dry now.
1st April has already passed but PF00Ls are still posting pranks.
PF Govt is bankrupt, failing to pay lecturers, student meal allowances & 1st year bursaries. A money-draining/loss-making airline will just be the straw that will break the camels back.
Zambians just ask for your $30 million back !!
Zambia would have paid off all its debt by the time the first flight takes off bwana.
No way am flying on this pf pipe dream.
Where is JUNIOR, Yamba ” I am neutral” yamba, Senior Citizen to give us 3 paragraphs? Let roll..
This guy Mushimba is full of fake promises, this airline was promised to be delivered within 90 days after PF takes power……. several date and deadlines have come and gone ever since.
If planes have not been ordered yet, this wont happen this year. Planes are not bought like Japanese 2nd hand cars, they have to be manufactured for you.
A vanity project being pushed for next elections. Like @ Journeyman said, those in the know can see the impending disaster this is headed for.
Gay Gay … right here busy running this country while you keep yapping. I specifically requested that we get a technocrat at the helm as CEO and there you have it. Bruk is our guy!!!
What happened last week??? I was in the U.K. and you didn’t want to post anything because you were gun shy and now that I am in Hong Kong you are asking for me???
Were you scared I would invite you for dinner again??? By the way, as I was landing at Hong Kong International, the Ethiopian Dreamliner 787 was just taxing for take off.
Pride just filled my heart because in my spirit; in a sense it felt like Zambia Airways just took off from Asia Pacific heading to the land of my forefathers … Africa, the final frontier.
Ba Brian faka speedie and Let’s roll …
Look at this shameless man …too much braggadocio of Nigerian village man; who cares whether you go to the moon!!
GREAT !!!
Zambia must become the hub for Central, East and Southern Africa. We can benefit and maximize a lot from this airline development. Tourism needs efforts from both the Private Sector and Government Sector.
In this,others will see OPPORTUNITIES. While others will be PESSIMISTIC and shoot down all the efforts made to reach where we are today. Big lessons were learnt from the Old Zambia Airways under UNIP.
Independent Observer@ I agree with you, we expect UPND to be negative on this announcement
Keep dreaming – this venture will cost tax payers huge.
Do your research on the airline business. It is cut-throat, and these PF clowns do not have the tools to keep this project afloat.
Zambians still need to travel abroad for Business, Holidays, Training and Education etc. Thats how the modern world operates.
Both the private sector and government need to do business everyday. This also means flying abroad.
We are currently enriching foreign airlines who put up fares every too often. And when this money is profited it ends up in foreign nations.
Anyone who is a frequent flyer or does International Business will understand this.
We are paying high fees in Airline Cargo Shipping, which in the end makes buying anything imported into Zambia at high cost from our retail outlets.
So lets buy airline tickets from Zambia Airways and keep our money in Zambia, create jobs, pay taxes to our government and avoid Capital Float going abroad.
Importantly to pay…
Cont….
Importantly to pay less cargo charges because this will competitive fees.
Please pass this guy a fluffy pillow so he can dream more and get more thumbs up!!
The PF government is full of people that think like INDEPENDENT OBSERVER.
That is the general Zambian mentality. They act based on emotions, and hype.
Citizens, learn to stay in your lane.
We know what Zambia can be good at (tourism, mining, agriculture etc. etc.), avionics we are NOT ready. Improve what we can be good at first.
Docile Zambians want to fly before they can even crawl.
Indigo Tyrol @ 2.6
Your Afro-pessimism will leave you undeveloped. Each project that a Private Corporation or Government initiates costs money.
Tell me! When will be the best time to implement an Airline in Zambia?
Zambia has built a mordern airport that will attract other international airlines
You cannot have a development idea and just sit down and do nothing. The cost of flying In and Out of Zambia is too high. This affects each consumer products sold to poor Zambians.
Offer me a solution and I will listen to you!!:
You are nothing but a bitter armchair critic. Zambia and Ethiopia did a feasibility study. You dont just wake up and launch an Airline like a Zombie…
By the way.. I am not PF. I have castigated PF, MMD, UPND. Iam INDEPENDENT
It appears like you…
Indingo Tyrol 2.6
Cont….
It appears like you turned up at Lusakatimes yesterday.
Look into my archives at that i have posted going back to when Lusakatimes was called Dispatch.
INDEPENDENT OBSERVER – If you are not new to LT you should know better than posting the selfsame things that have been debated bitterly here to sound knowledgeable…go now and look at the related articles below this article.
INDEPENDENT OBSERVER
So you think Zambia Airways will provide cheaper fares than other players that have enormous fleet of Air crafts? Dream on.
As I said, do not act on emotions and hype.
Just learn to stay in your Lane.
Do some research of the airline business.
IndigoTyrol – We have spoke about this in great great great great great detail especially the reason that makes them think ZA will provide cheaper tickets than KLM, KAL, Emirates. I find it daft and vexatious that someone can even bring up that..they think people go on KAYAK or Skyscanner websites looking for airlines; they go for cheap deals for connecting in Africa and Emirates/Air France/KLM gives cheap value for money tickets.
Just refer these people to previous articles!!!
Never give up no matter what the critics have to say. We will get there one day. We will proudly fly our national flag high over distant lands and seas… the impossible just takes a little longer than the possible.
More like flying the national flag into the abyss of debt.
Nine Chale
Please,it is about priorities. The government is in a financial crisis and you support such a project?We all want to have a flag bearer in the skys but is this the right time?Already citizens are overtaxed and you are supporting another financial draining activity.
This government is doomed,all they think of is 2021whilst citizens wonder how we shall reeach 2021…very sad,but the good tbing is,these are the results of voting for PF
Really laughable … as Einstein stated insanity is ….
I think EA are even reviewing their business plans after that crush…
Nine Chali is a day dreamer and a very emotional woman or I forgot man!!
Yipppppeeeeee! A smart combo with Ethiopia Airlines, an African to African unity project. But please could we avoid buying the 737 MAX 8. The reports are in, the automated message system fights control from the pilot because of false sensor activity. Man Vs machine in the air is not a good movie to star in!
Brian Mashimba is a highly educated guy, so I find it disappointing that at a time when the government is struggling with increasing debt interest payments, he wants to launch an airline that will be funded by the government. The argument being put forward that it will increase tourism are not justified. Has a feasibility study or a cost-benefit analysis been carried out, have they looked at loss-making airlines like Kenya Airways and South African Airways to find out how much it is costing these governments to finance such a project? Have they found out why Nigeria with a population of over 200 million and abandant oil resource has abandoned the airline project?
We have jokers in this government, do you know they are discussing nuclear power when schools have no roof or desks?
Really laughable …Have you seen his Research topic for his PHD?
No Jay Jay, please share
How can a government that can’t afford to it’s workers plan to start an airline?? I am sure we all know that bapompwe are only interested in undertaking projects where they can inflate costs so they can pocket the difference. How does someone go and grade mukuba University when they can run the 2 universities that are already there. They can’t pay lecturers, students, council workers, zampost…….? How did you guys get there? They have now embarked on a journey to be kicked out of government. ZCTU Mr Nkole what’s going on? Labour issues and salaries are politics. You need start fighting for the workers. Call for a total shut down of all businesses. Solidarity in numbers is what will bring results. The apartheid government was brutal than these visionless crooks. They have already…
Ba Mushimba, much as we all appreciate and eagerly wait for this milestone, sometimes its important to do less talk and just deliver, let the results speak for themselves. I thought that you should be emulating President Lungu, who talks very little and over delivers. You know the frustrated UPND will never support you regardless of what good you do.
Next time you update the nation on new Zambia Airways, it should be the launch ceremony.
You started off very well until you stated that Lungu talks less but over delivers, what does he deliver apart from $80 million presidential jets, threatening closure of CBU?UNZA, getting Kabwe council workers beaten by his own cadres, non-payment of lecturers salaries, increasing and unaffordable government debt, non-payment of Lusaka council workers while Miles Sampa flies to Washington on a lavish trip, first lady flying to on a two week US trip to receive retired fire trucks with a 25 man delegation, the list is endless
Really laughable ..you are advising an educated foool to emulate Lazy Lungu…the deaf leading the blind.
I am PF but this airline thing is really crap
February 2020 headline: ZAMBIA AIRWAYS WORKERS GO 6 MONTHS WTHOUT PAY
August 2021 Headline : DEBTORS THREATENING TO CEASE AEROPLANES FROM ZAMBIA AIRWAYS FOR NON PAYMENT FOR PLANE PURCHASE
Really laughable …I TOLD YOU FOOOOOOLS
JAY JAY They have no clue…
When was the research done that this country needs a new airline? Who has the report? And though I know that there is no such report, how was this arrived at as a priority.
Realist
How sad are you really to ask a stupid question. This a project between 2 nations. You must be very dull that 2 governments can forge a deal such as an Airline without doing research.
It is not asking too much to insist on the quick take off. This is the start of the 2nd quarter. What about the rest of it? Then come the 3rd quarter. In which month is take off? The public is saying: investment is dormant instead of making huge profits. The public is saying: investment is dormant instead of creating so many jobs.
They have no clue…
Makasa Kasonde (Private Citizen) – what did we tell you 5 – 8 years ago but you carried on day-dreaming? Refer to related topics section below this article and read the threads in there in some BR Mumba Jr is ignorantly cheering you on …that $30 million is no more where is it? Sitting in an EA account untouched really laughable…EA has lost one Boeing 737 MAX 8 and has 5 grounded with a huge bill in claims
This man is a joke, and people CALL him honorable.
You wanna know why Emmanuel Mwamba was transferred to Ethiopia in the same capacity??? THIS IS WHY!!! Zambia Air Ways / Ethiopian Airways. Thank me later
I think the investments should have been made to improve the railway system which will have a direct impact on current state of road systems and improve transportation of goods (containers) to the be boarders.
What the government needs to do is to create or support private industry to start Zambian based airlines.
9 our 10 you talk to think this is a bad idea, why do the leaders think otherwise?
Greed and corruption buying new machinery means more brown envelopes from single sourcing …you wont find them buying policies in farming like this as its hard work and sweat.
*….pushing policies…..
* 9 out of 10 people ….
Govt of morons for morons by morons!
Are we sure PF won’t abuse ZA by appointing cadres to important positions? As long as their are other airlines, I don’t see myself flying ZA. With their corruption and inefficiency, only Ethiopia’s stake will help to keep P F from screwing everything.
Zambia Airways flies into debt and insolvency ….that’s gonna be the headline in five years.
LOL!!!! your time is up. Lost sheep.
We will be waiting for that