BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE- Soon, emaSwati will not have to connect flights to reach their destination in some parts of the region.
According to a communiqué sent out by the Eswatini Tourism Authority, the Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) applied for landing and departure slots at OR Tambo International, King Shaka International, Cape Town International in South Africa and at Robert Gabriel Mugabe (Harare) International Airport in Zimbabwe.
Also, it was revealed that the Eswatini Air is moving closer to launch flight.
“RENAC would like to update stakeholders and the general public on the latest developments about Eswatini Air taking to the skies.
“Since the approval of their Air Operator Certificate (AOC), several preparatory and post-AOC actions have been initiated. Tremendous progress in securing the necessary documentation has been made to operate to the different destinations they will be flying to. So far, the Foreign Operator Permit (FOP) for Zimbabwe and the FOP for South Africa are in the process. It is expected that everything regarding that is smoothed out very soon,” read the communiqué.
It was also revealed that RENAC had also been assigned airline codes by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The assigned IATA2 letter code is RN while the IATA 3 digit accounting prefix is 507.
“The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also assigned codes used for airline identification when operating international flights. These codes are used for facilitating communication between the airline and Air Navigation Services Providers or Airspace Management agencies. The two codes applicable are SZL as the 3 letter designator, and Eswatini as the Telephony designator.
“Following that, RENAC applied for landing and departure slots at OR Tambo International, King Shaka International, Cape Town International in South Africa, and at Robert Gabriel Mugabe (Harare) International Airport in Zimbabwe.”
The communiqué also stated that soon as outstanding matters are cleared, systems will be updated and schedules and pricing will be published to allow Eswatini Air to commence trading and flying passengers to the different destinations.
“Once all of these procedures have been completed, a maiden flight date will be announced. Until then, it is hoped that Eswatini Air will be taking to the skies at the beginning of the next IATA season, which is March 26, 2023.
“Due to the work that still needs to happen in the background to ensure the airline operates at its optimum best, plans are in place to break the launch into three phases. The airline will begin by starting with one destination and then two others will be added after an interim period of less than one month, with phase III whereby they add the fourth destination being the final stage. “The exact dates for each phase and sequence of destinations will be announced as soon as the outstanding processes have been finalised.”
