Zambian airline Proflight Zambia has announced that it is to resume scheduled flights between the central southern African country’s capital, Lusaka, and South Africa’s third major metropolitan hub city, number one port, and major tourist destination Durban. Located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban and its adjacent seaside resorts give access to beaches washed by warm sub-tropical waters, and protected from sharks.
The flights will restart on April 6 and will be operated twice weekly, initially on Thursdays and Sundays, although the Sunday flights will only start on April 16. However, there will be a special flight on April 11, for people returning from Easter weekends.
“Tourism numbers have shown a notable growth of 38% between 2021 and 2022 indicating strong tourism recovery between Zambia and South Africa, while over the same period South African exports to Zambia grew by R1.6-billion, information that is all a positive sign for Proflight Zambia opening this air service,” affirmed the airline.
Although small by South African standards, Proflight Zambia is that country’s number one scheduled airline. It also provides charter services. A privately-held company, it was founded in 1991 and is based in Lusaka.
Domestically, it operates scheduled services between Lusaka and Livingstone, the Lower Zambesi airstrips at Jeki and Royal, Mansa, Mfuwe, Ndola and Solwezi. Internationally, it already operates services between Lusaka and Johannesburg, South Africa, and Ndola and Johannesburg. (Ndola is the industrial and commercial centre of Zambia’s Copperbelt, a major mining area of international significance; in 2021 Zambia was ranked as the number eight copper producer in the world, and the number two in Africa.)
The airline has a fleet of eight aircraft. These are three Bombardier CRJ-100/200 regional jets, four Jetstream 41 regional turboprop airliners, and one Jetstream 32 turboprop. The CRJ-100/200s can carry 50 passengers each, the Jetstream 41s can carry 29 passengers each and the Jetstream 32 can carry 18 passengers. The Lusaka-Durban service will be operated with CRJ-200 airliners.