Mack Air to offer domestic flights in Zimbabwe

Starting on the 1st of March 2025, Botswana based Mack Air will be operating scheduled domestic flights in Zimbabwe. Mack Air and Air Zimbabwe signed an agreement for the launch of the “Flame Lilly Hoopa” domestic and regional air service in Zimbabwe on the 4th of July 2019. At the time of signing, this deal was said to include the launch of daily domestic scheduled air service between Victoria Falls, Harare and the major tourist destinations including Hwange, Kariba and Chiredzi.

The initial plan is to operate daily flights from Harare to Kariba, the Matusadona, and lower Zambezi areas using a mixture of Cessna 208 Caravans and or Beechcraft King Air aircraft. In the past couple of years, two airlines have tried to enter the Harare – Kariba route. The airlines are Kuva Air and Fastjet Zimbabwe. Both airlines used the 30-seater Embraer E120 aircraft. Kuva Air is no longer operational and whilst Fastjet is still operating, they no longer offer flights on this route. It is unclear if they will return on the route operating it as a seasonal route instead of year round. What Mack Air has in their favour though, is that they will be using smaller aircraft compared to the last two airlines.

It will be interesting to see if Mack Air can make this route work, especially with ticket prices starting at $170 one way, which is actually above what the way more popular regional route between Harare and Johannesburg costs and almost double the price of domestic flights between Harare and Bulawayo.