Air Zimbabwe is preparing to resume direct flights between Harare and London Gatwick later this summer, marking the airline’s return to the UK for the first time in around 14 years.
The national carrier last operated the route in early 2012, before financial troubles forced it to withdraw entirely from the London market. Since then, passengers travelling between Zimbabwe and the UK, including the country’s large diaspora community, have had to rely on lengthy one-stop connections through hubs such as Dubai, Doha, Nairobi, Johannesburg or Addis Ababa.
The relaunched service will use an Airbus A330, operated on Air Zimbabwe’s behalf by Spanish carrier Plus Ultra under an ACMI wet-lease arrangement, meaning Plus Ultra supplies the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance while flights run under Air Zimbabwe’s own flight code. Reports on the exact start date have varied slightly, but the airline is targeting a launch this summer, building towards three flights a week.
Industry figures suggest around 190,000 passengers travel between the UK and Zimbabwe each year, with the vast majority of that traffic funnelled through the Harare-London city pair. A direct service is expected to shave several hours off journey times for those passengers, as well as opening up valuable cargo capacity for Zimbabwean exports such as flowers and fresh produce heading to the UK market.
The route forms part of a broader wave of new long-haul arrivals at Gatwick this year, with the airport also welcoming AirAsia X and Air Arabia as it looks to capitalise on tighter slot availability at Heathrow.
For UK-based Zimbabwean travellers who’ve spent over a decade routing through other hubs, it’s a significant, and long-awaited, change.
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