ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 29 — Ethiopia’s national air carrier Ethiopian Airlines (ET) announced on Monday it has finalized joint preparations with the governmental Ethiopia Industry Park Development Corporation (EIPDC) to revive Zambia Airways (ZN) later this week.
In a press statement, ET said it will retain 45 percent stake in the joint venture while EIPDC will retain 55 percent, with the two shareholders contributing a combined capital of 30 million U.S. dollars toward the establishment of ZN.
“Zambia Airways is to join African Sky with its initial domestic flight from the Zambian capital, Lusaka to a regional city, Ndola on Wednesday,” the ET statement said.
“ZN will operate a frequency of six and five times a week to Ndola and another Zambian city, Livingstone, respectively,” the statement further said.
The ET statement also said other Zambian domestic routes like Mfuwe and Solwezi will follow before introducing foreign destinations such as Johannesburg and Harare, in the first quarter of 2022.
In 2018, the Zambian government signed a shareholding agreement with Ethiopian Airlines to restart operations of Zambia Airways which stopped operations in 1994.
But the commencement of operations has dragged on over the years and the launch of flights which was initially scheduled for September 30th, 2021, was postponed. – XINHUA
