The re-launch of the Zambian flag carrier, Zambia Airways, has been further delayed again due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the global aviation industry, the state broadcaster ZNBC said.
Zambia’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Mutotwe Kafwaya expressed that the current COVID-19 pandemic had affected business and therefore it was not ideal to launch the airline at a time when the aviation industry was paralyzed.
The restored national carrier was set to launch in October 2018 but the launch was delayed to January 2019 and in early 2019, the re-launch date was again postponed to April 2019.
In July 2019, the Zambia Tourism Agency announced that the airline was scheduled to start operating in the last quarter of 2019 but, according to Lusaka Times, on 8 August 2019, the government of Zambia delayed the relaunch of the airline again after Zambia’s Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) sent a message stating that the airline was not be relaunched until Zambia was in a better economical state.
Zambia Airways is a joint venture between Zambia’s state-owned Industrial Development Corporation and Ethiopian Airlines.
