Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
THE Airports Company of Zimbabwe (ACZ) says the year 2023 saw air traffic into the country surpassing pre-Covid levels.
This comes after the outbreak of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020 reduced cross-border movement to a trickle as countries imposed travel restrictions.
ACZ public relations and communications manager Tonderai Mangombe told The Financial Gazette that last year saw Zimbabwe’s growth surpassing the average international air traffic growth. “2023 was a good year for us.
We surpassed pre-Covid-19 levels and also grew more than 20 percent above the 2022 traffic levels. “We saw four new airlines coming into the country and the existing airlines increased their frequencies. We are above the global average in terms of growth.
“The global average is 92 percent of the pre-Covid-19 level, which we have already surpassed by at least 10 percent,” Mangombe said. The year saw the likes of Eswatini Air, CemAir, FlySafair, and Zambia Airways flying into Zimbabwe.
Flysafair has already applied to double its daily flights between Harare and Johannesburg, while it is expected to link Harare with Cape Town directly early this year.
“We are hoping to achieve more in 2024 as the Covid-19 situation has stabilised and there is improvement in the economy, Mangombe said. It also comes after an extensive US$153 million upgrade of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, which is still underway though the major works have been completed.
“We are also intensifying our business development efforts. This year, we will be targeting new long-haul flights directly into Zimbabwe, for both Victoria Falls and Harare. “On the infrastructure side we completed the new extensions (at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport) in June 2023 and by June 2024 we should have completed the refurbishment of the existing terminal.
“Some works are being planned for the refurbishment of Kariba Airport, Joshua Mqabuko (spelling) Nkomo International Airport and we are still looking into partnerships for the development of new airports, that is Beitbridge, Mutare and Gweru,” Mangombe said.
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