Rainbow Airline touches down in Victoria Falls

ZIMBABWE's new commercial airline, Rainbow Airlines, made its maiden flight to Victoria Falls yesterday following the arrival of its 50 seater Bombardier CRJ100 aircraft at the Harare International Airport.

Chief executive officer Mr Ed Berry said the initial flight would be followed by the commencement of flights between Harare and Johannesburg next month.

"We do not have a specific date yet (for Johannesburg), but we will be flying three times weekly on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and we hope to increase that to daily flights within two months.

"We are not a budget airline, but we will be charging competitive rates on this route and we are hoping that our numbers will be good since we have a small plane," he said.

The new airline touched down at the new look Victoria Falls International Airport at about 15.08PM yesterday with 50 people on board.

The airline will have to contend with competition from Air Zimbabwe, South African Airways, Fastjet and British Airways operated by Comair, which are already servicing the route.

The wholly Zimbabwean-owned company is also earmarking the Harare to Cape Town route. Mr Berry said they were expecting to get a second CRJ100 aircraft within the first four months of operation to assist in servicing increased routes and frequencies.

"Rainbow Airlines has gone into a business relationship with CemAir Ltd, a privately owned airline operating in South Africa, which services popular destinations and leases aircraft to other airlines across Africa and the Middle East," said the firm in a statement.

"A local finance and investment advisory firm, GMRI Capital, which structured the Rainbow Airlines equity and capital injection deal, is predicting a great future for the aviation industry in Zimbabwe."

Speaking ahead of the launch of the airline, GMRI said it had identified an investor after the project founders got stunted with financial hurdles.

The deal saw an investment into the business, now running beyond $1m, and a sale of equity of 70 percent to an institutional investor. The other 30 percent is held by a medical doctor in Harare.

Speaking at the Harare International Airport, Mr Berry said prospects were high that Rainbow Airlines would service other routes including the Harare to Nairobi, Harare to Lubumbashi and Kinshasa, Harare to Durban, Bulawayo to Johannesburg, Harare to Beira and Maputo.

"Later, international destinations and more domestic routes will be applied for. These will include Harare to — Kariba, Bulawayo, Mutare, Hwange, Masvingo, Buffalo Range and Beitbridge," he said.