Malawi's Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Economic, Ted Sitimawina, has disclosed that British Airways (BA), Qatar Airways (QR) and Emirates (EK) have all expressed interest in starting flights to the landlocked Central African country, a move that would help to drive down the exorbitant cost of air travel to the country.
Sitimawina made the disclosure during a briefing on progress made by Malawi's Economic Recovery Plan before the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament.
"Qatar Airlines, Emirates and British Airways are interested to operate in Malawi (sic). As you are aware that the ticket fare of a South African Airways flight into Malawi from South Africa is the same as that from United Kingdom to South Africa. No tourist would pay a for two hour flight same as a 10 hour flight," Sitimawina said.
Source [Daily Times]
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| ET & KQ in Lilongwe (D Smith) |
Sitimawina could not disclose which airlines would commence operations as they were still looking into specific statistics and passenger volumes before negotiations begin.
Prior to 1994, Malawi saw service from British
Airways, Lufthansa (LH) and KLM (KL) but factors including
economic decline, declining tourist numbers and deteriorating aviation infrastructure precipitated their withdrawal leaving only South African Airways (SA), Kenya Airways (KQ) and Ethiopian Airlines (ET).
Ethiopian Airlines recently announced a new 3x weekly, Boeing 737-800 operated Addis Ababa - Lilongwe - Blantyre - Addis Ababa route beginning 31 March 2013.
