Proflight & Kenya Airways

Lusaka-based regional airline Proflight Zambia has signed an interline agreement with Kenya Airways that will enable passengers to travel across the networks of both airlines with a single booking.

Under the agreement, customers will be able to purchase joint Proflight Zambia-Kenya Airways itineraries and will be issued with a single combined ticket. This will enable seamless connections to and from Proflight’s ten domestic destinations: Lusaka, Ndola, Livingstone, Mfuwe, Solwezi, Chipata, Mansa, Kasama, Lower Zambezi and Mongu, as well as its two international routes, Lilongwe in Malawi and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.

It will also enable Proflight customers to book flights to over 60 destinations within the Kenya Airways network from its hub in Nairobi, Kenya. The move should draw more leisure and business travels to Zambia, and facilitate wider travel options for passengers from Zambia looking to travel internationally.

“We welcome Kenya Airways passengers to the Proflight network in Zambia, and look forward to a long and happy partnership between the two airlines,” said Captain Philip Lemba, Proflight Director of Government and Industry Affairs.

Customers will enjoy a range of added benefits, including special fares on itineraries across the two airlines.

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Natalie Foxworthy Live On ‘The Experience’

Meet Natalie Foxworthy (above), Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Soulchild, our weekly radio music and talk show airing every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Natalie was on holiday in Livingstone following a visit to Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, concerning her work as a Projects Officer for Education and Youth Development with Children International.

“What does Children International do?” Milli Jam asked Natalie at the top of the show and she explained that for over 75 years, Children International has been providing critical assistance to children and families struggling in poverty. Through their one-to-one child sponsorship program, they reduce the burden of poverty on impoverished children, invest in their potential and provide them with opportunities to grow up healthy, educated and prepared to succeed and contribute to society. Sponsorship of a child is US$25 per month and Natalie estimated that there are some 18,000 children being helped in Zambia. Natalie oversees Children International’s projects in 13 different countries around the world. A former Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador she did her Masters in International Development at the University of California, San Diego. She hails from Los Angeles. During this visit to Zambia, Natalie had visited some of the poorest ‘compounds’ in Lusaka including Chibolya, Kanyama and George.

Natalie told listeners that she had thoroughly enjoyed her few days in Livingstone. She had flown down from Lusaka with Proflight and on her first afternoon she had loved the sunset cruise on Lady Livingstone, being lucky to have seen a great sunset as well as game in, and on the shores of, the mighty Zambezi. She had been out to Livingstone Island and swum in Angel’s Pool, telling listeners that the water was very cold but she had loved the experience of swimming right on the edge of the stunning Victoria Falls! She had also enjoyed a lion/cheetah encounter that very afternoon. Natalie hoped to visit the Livingstone Museum and to buy some souvenirs before heading back to Lusaka, and then on to Kansas where she now lives.

The music on the show was good and we featured tracks from Sneakbo, Iggy Azalea, Zonefam, Miguel, Bruno Mars, Lawson and Sebastian Ingrosso amongst others. Our oldie of the week was The Kinks – You Really Got Me but the prize went unwon – just too old for our young Zambian listeners I guess! Kaufela and his granny asked to be considered for the prize of a dinner for two at the lodge!

Natalie told listeners that she’d been married for three and a half years and that she met her husband in El Salvador when she was stationed there with the Peace Corps. As yet they had no children. They both loved soccer, Natalie’s an avid Barcelona supporter while her husband prefers Real Madrid. She loves Latin music and speaks fluent Spanish. She had found Chanters Lodge through the Trip Advisor site and had enjoyed her stay at the lodge. She felt she could not visit Zambia without coming to see Victoria Falls and had loved the sight both from Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing ten years from now the gracious and interesting Natalie said she would love to be living in Africa, and working for an NGO involved with youth development. We wished her the best of luck.

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Hippo On Board!

 Just love this story from Proflight! Thought it was a carved hippo when I first saw the photo!

Proflight Zambia welcomed an unusual passenger on board its aircraft last week in the form of Douglina, a 120 kg hippo calf. The four-month-old orphan, at 1.2 meters long, was flown by the airline in a specially-made crate from the Lower Zambezi to her new home in South Luangwa National Park. The animal was rescued by a team from wildlife charity Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ), who had observed it for several hours, alone and in distress on the Zambezi River.

When a female hippo nears the time to give birth, she leaves the pod for one to two weeks to give birth to her young and bond with the calf. Without its mother for protection from predators, the calf would almost certainly not have survived the night. Hippo have been identified as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List drawn up by the World Conservation Union, with an estimated global population of between 125,000 and 150,000, a decline of between 7 percent and 20 percent since the IUCN’s 1996 study.

Settled in her new temporary home complete with plunge pool, cleaned and refilled each day, Douglina – who was originally thought to be male and named Douglas – was fed from a bottle with a formula put together with the advice of experts. Consuming 1.5 litres of milk with two egg yolks and supplements every three hours – she grew quickly. After the elephant and white rhino, the hippo is the heaviest land mammal and soon Douglas grew too large for his current enclosure and became expensive to feed and look after. Hippos can grow over four metres in length and 1.6m tall. They can live for up to 45 years, with males reaching maturity at about 9-11 years old and females at 7-9 years old.

The plan is to release Douglina back into the wild when she reaches maturity. In view of this the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) decided that the safest place for the calf to be reared until she can be released is Chipembele Wildlife Trust in South Luangwa, where experienced wildlife rehabilitators have committed to caring for her in their open facility. However the big question was how to get her there? A road journey would be long, stressful and potentially dangerous for the disorientated calf and so a much shorter and more comfortable journey by air was advised.

Thanks to Proflight and their generous team, the calf has been given a much higher chance of a smooth and successful relocation in a purpose built wooden crate in the back of their caravan aircraft! Douglina was accompanied by one of his dedicated carers and ZAWA a vet. Later this year Douglina’s milk consumption will be reduced and in accordance with a natural hippo calf she will be weaned between February and June 2014. Her new home in South Luangwa is often visited by wild hippos and it is hoped that she will ultimately find a mate and join a wild pod.

Proflight have supported CLZ for many years. As well as flights, CLZ was also their dedicated charity in 2011 and into 2012. CLZ thank Proflight for all of their fundamental help to our work protecting wildlife for the present and future generations of Zambia.

Proflight Zambia was established in 1991 and is the country’s only domestic scheduled airline. From its base in Lusaka it flies to Livingstone, Mfuwe, Lower Zambezi, Ndola, Solwezi, Chipata, Mansa and Kasama.

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FastJet

Easy Jet  is set to launch a new low cost carrier under the name “Fast Jet” and base it in Africa following a deal between the owner of existing carrier, Fly540 and British owned investment firm, Rubicon. EasyJet’s founder Sir Stelios HajiIoannou will launch a low cost airline in Africa this year. The carrier will be based on the platform created by Lonrho Aviation’s Fly540 network. The new carrier aims to transform the Nairobi based Fly540 into a no frills, all jet low cost carrier for Africa.

Fastjet, will operate from Kenya, Angola, Ghana, and Tanzania. Fly540 recorded turnover of $57 million and carried 525,375 passengers last year. Fast Jet hopes to reinvent the low cost carrier model for Africa, with ticket prices starting from around US$20. The company hopes to target Africa’s growing middle class with average fares of around 70-80 US $ on flights between fast growing cities such as Nairobi in Kenya and Angola’s Luanda. Africa lacks a decent cheap and efficient aviation network with an average 0.03 journeys per head per year, compared to 1.5 to 2 air journeys per head in the West. There’s a shortage of direct point to point flights within Africa. It’s difficult to get from capital city to capital city especially in West Africa. The new carrier aims to carry more than 12 million passengers a year because of demand from the growing African middleclass for regional travel.

 
There will be significant difference will be in the way the low cost carrier model to will be transplanted to Africa. In Europe, almost all tickets are sold online. However, in Fast Jet’s African market, internet access can be as low as 20%. Fastjet tickets will therefore be distributed via travel agents, GDSs and some walk-up ticket sales. Passengers will also be able to buy tickets using credits through mobile phone.




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Precision Air

This via Seb at Travel Comments

Tanzania’s largest airline Precision Air has announced the start of its operations to Lubumbashi (DR Congo) and through to Lusaka (Zambia) effective 18 May 2012.

The airline will fly the new route using its newly leased Boeing 737-300. Flights will depart Dar Es Salaam at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The flight duration is 2hrs. Precision Air also announced plans to commence flight to Angola later in the year as the projected growth takes root with more frequencies and more destinations.

Precision Air currently operates scheduled air services between Dar Es Salaam and 16 destinations in Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Comores, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The airline’s main base is Julius Nyerere International Airport, Dar es Salaam with hubs at Kilimanjaro International Airport and Mwanza Airport.

That’s nice – but it’s a pity there are no direct flights between Dar and Livingstone – that would be ‘precision’!
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Consumer Diaries

Here’s a good website for consumers in Zambia having a hard time at the moment! Consumer Diaries, written by Zambian consumers for Zambian consumers. The latest post involves the suspension of the air service permit for Zambezi Airlines by government – no great surprise there – they’ve been in a shambles for weeks with delayed and cancelled flights. Yesterday there were about 15 stranded travellers at Harry M Nkumbula International Airport in Livingstone, negotiating seats on other airlines flying to South Africa.
We hope Consumer Diaries will soon turn their attention to Zambia Breweries and the constant annual shortages of beer and soft drinks in Livingstone and other parts of Zambia through October and November – not alright in the nominated (should that be nominal?) ‘tourist capital’.
And what about Zesco? Most Zambian consumers thought that one of the first impacts of the new government would be restoration of constant power supplies – not so – even though the President did fire the Zesco MD nothing has changed there! Just as well we have a good stand by generator at Chanters Lodge!

“The Consumer Diaries is a Zambian consumer’s mouthpiece written strictly by consumers for other consumers. It contains a compilation of reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from consumers themselves. This is done in order to help people have an opportunity to rate product/service experiences that they have had, and also to investigate new products or services in order to make informed decisions.”

Wish them the best of luck!

The picture? A bottle of Zambia’s great Mosi beer – currently unavailable from distributors in Livingstone, Zambia.

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Emirates To Fly To Zambia!


From SkyClub.com

“Emirates is launching flights to two new African destinations from February next year. The airline will be offering five flights per week from Dubai to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, and Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, from 1st February 2012.

Travellers visiting Zambia or Zimbabwe with Emirates will be within easy reach of Victoria Falls- the largest waterfall in the world. Labelled a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Victoria Falls is 1.7km wide and cascades over 100 metres. Both destinations also have world-class national safari parks for any travellers wishing to observe some African wildlife.

Passengers travelling with Emirates to Zambia and Zimbabwe will be able to experience Emirates’ luxurious First and Business Class cabins. The A330-200 operating the route has a three-class configuration with 12 First Class seats, 42 Business Class seats and 183 Economy seats. Guests in all classes of travel will enjoy meals prepared by gourmet chefs, as well as hundreds of channels of entertainment and the facility to send and receive emails and text messages.

“Emirates has long understood the enormous potential of Africa, which today is one of the fastest-expanding economic regions of the world, benefitting from a combined market of over one billion people, rising consumer demand and an abundance of natural resources,” said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group.

“Zambia and Zimbabwe will be our 20th and 21st African destinations and their addition to our global network will enable us to provide new flexibility and choice for customers, help to grow trade routes and create important new inbound and outbound markets for tourism,” added His Highness.”

Now, all we need is a direct flight from Europe to Livingstone. Come on!

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Lusaka International Airport


LusakaTimes reports:

Government has entered into an agreement with a Turkish firm Guris Holding to upgrade the Lusaka International Airport. The re-modeling will be done in three areas including the face-lifting of the terminal building, the VIP section and the improvement of the marketing side.

He added that Government will not use any money on the project but that this will be financed by the private sector. Minister of Finance Dr. Musokotwane could however not disclose the total cost of the project but said that will be determined after negotiations are concluded in four weeks time.

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Fly Zambia Airline


This piece from Times of Zambia caught my attention: The investors say they’d like to use the old Zambia Airways logo and in a blast from the past there’s a photo of one of the old airline’s planes clearly showing the much loved logo. Most people felt it was a great mistake to allow the airline to go out of business in the 90’s.

A GROUP of investors from South Africa and Zambia have formed a partnership and staked about K105 billion for a new national airline called Fly Zambia Airline which will be launched in September this year. The company is in consultation with the Government on the possibility of adopting the logo which was previously used by the defunct Zambia Airways.

Fly Zambia Airline Limited chief executive officer Theunis Crous said his company was in discussion with the Government to allow the firm use the Zambia Airways flag and logo on their Fokker aircraft. The defunct Zambia Airways was founded in 1964 as a subsidiary of Central African Airways, but went into liquidation in 1995.

In an interview in Lusaka, Mr Crous explained that the establishment of a national airline was a private initiative hence would be managed by experienced Zambian and South African team.
Mr Crous said the airline would use the Fokker 100 and Fokker 50 aircraft which have low operational costs. “We will start with four aircraft, two of which are Fokker 100 and the other two will be Fokker 50 including a cargo aircraft. We will do a lot of training of the staff in the aviation sector because our planes will be landing in Zambia for the first time and they need to be shown how they operate,” Mr Crous said. He said the airline would initially start with local and regional routes before expanding its routes internationally.

The regional routes include Zambabwe, Angola, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “The firm will also service the domestic market and will set up a car hire company linked directly to the airline,” Mr Crous said. He said as a result of the investment, the airline would create 150 jobs for the local people.

Mr Crous said the introduction of the national airline in Zambia would give the local people the glory of having their own national airline. He said they would use the airline to attract tourists because tourism was a fast-growing industry. “The tourism industry has the potential to even grow and we shall aim to promote tourism from within the region and make Zambia the best destination by providing the services through our airline,” Mr Crous said. He said due to improved macroeconomic indicators and attractive investment incentive, the airline was able to invest in the aviation sector.

Mr Crous commended the Zambian Government for its continued efforts in enhancing the business environment for the private sector to invest in Zambia.

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Dr Marja Hinfelaar on 107.7 fm


Meet Marja Hinfelaar, pictured above with family friend Frobert Van Zijl (no, that’s not a typo, his name is Frobert!). Marja, an Historian with National Archives of Zambia and a regular Guest at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, was in town with Frobert, his wife Karyn and their two boys for a weekend visit, so naturally we invited her to guest on The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild!

For the uninitiated that’s our weekly Sunday night radio show airing between 20.30 and 21.30 hours on Zambezi 107.7fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station broadcasting in a range of 70kms around Southern Province, taking in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and the Botswana border as well. The show’s a great mixture of music and chat also featuring international and local chart news, as well as stories from Lodgeblog and a regular prize of a dinner for 2 with drinks at Chanters Lodge, ensuring the show’s popularity in town and around!

Marja told listeners that she’s a Dutch national and had been in Zambia since 1997 but in fact her first visit to this country was in 1990 when her uncle was a catholic priest in Lusaka. She has a Phd in African History from University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. (“Dr Hinfelaar? We hadn’t been told!” I offered). Milli Jam asked Marja about her work with the Livingstone Museum and she told listeners that the museum’s clock tower was now open as an additional gallery. Her new project would involve digitally recording all the highly valuable 19th Century documents including David Livingstone’s letters so that the originals could be removed to safe storage, meaning visitors would still able to peruse the records on computer. This would entail Marja resuming her regular monthly visits to Livingstone. This made us happy!

The music on the show was great. We opened with Enrique Iglesias featuring Usher, Lil Wayne and Nayer and their smash hit ‘Dirty Dancer’ which we played back to back with Gyptian’s latest ‘Let Me In’. Our Zambian tracks plugged Slap Dee’s ‘I Wanna Lose Myself’ coupled with XBoy’s ‘Malita’. (XBoy’s from Livingstone and a regular listener to the show). Milli Jam chose ‘Take Off’ by Chipmunk featuring TreySongz and Bobby V’s ‘Altered Ego’ featuring 50 Cent. Wow! We moved on to Beyonce’s latest ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ back to back with Akon’s ‘Can You Believe’ and closed with Alexandra Stan’s ‘Mr Saxobeat’. All the hits!

We asked Marja and Frobert about their activities while they’d been in Livingstone and Marja told listeners that Frobert and his family had enjoyed their one day safari to Chobe. She hadn’t accompanied them as she didn’t care much for elephants! However, she’d joined them for a game drive in Mosi-o-Tunya National Park and the whole family were delighted that they’d been able to get up really close to the rhino. Of course they’d been to see Victoria Falls and got drenched in the process – as you do at this time of year!

Marja told listeners about a new journal called The Bulletin and The Record published monthly in Lusaka of which she’s an editor and which takes an in-depth look at topical Zambian issues. When asked about her private life she told us she was ‘separated but dating’. ‘Fair enough’ we said! She told listeners that they’d travelled from Lusaka by Proflight on Friday and that the plane had been exactly on time. They were leaving the next day with the same airline.

We gave listeners the chart and blog news, greeted guests and staff at the lodge and gave away a dinner for two to the first person to text us Marja’s country of origin. Good response! Great show!

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