After decades of promises and nearly a year after the first announced flight of its new national air carrier was scheduled to depart, Eswatini is back in the commercial air travel business this week. With the takeoff of the first flight of Eswatini Air to Johannesburg, local airfreight customers have a new way to ship cargo to South Africa. Shippers will soon have the means to fly goods directly to Zimbabwe for the first time since 1999.
It was 1999 when Royal Air Swazi went out of business, and government made a deal with the SA company Airlink to provide air service to the country. Swaziland Airlink (later Eswatini Airlink) was established to do the task. When government announced the revival of the national airline last June, the relationship with Airlink was terminated. However, Airlink flights continued after the new, wholly government-owned airline failed to begin flights as promised on June 1, 2022.
The first flight out of King Mswati III International Airport landed at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday, March 26. The passengers, a mix of local dignitaries and government officials, taxied beneath a hose-propelled water arch salute provided by Airports Company South Africa (Acsa). “We’re excited to welcome Eswatini Airlines,” Acsa said in a statement. “What a great way to start the Easter season.”
The aircraft was an Embraer ERJ 145, one of two the airline has purchased for its routes. In addition to two daily scheduled flights to Johannesburg, the company’s planes departing Eswatini will fly to Cape Town and Durban. Commencement date for these services awaits confirmation.
“It never made much sense flying to Johannesburg because it takes about the same time to drive there from Mbabane instead of going all the way to the middle of nowhere (KM3 airport is an hour east of Manzini), doing the check in and security there and then the arrival routine when you get to Jo’burg,” a business traveller, Amos Ndwandwe, told Freight News. “Airlink Swaziland was also overpriced. Eswatini Air is cheaper, and it also goes to other places you don’t want to drive to.”
On April 14, the airline will start flying to Harare, Zimbabwe. Officially, Eswatini Air is saying it is “resuming” its flights to Harare, considering the quarter-century since the cessation of Royal Air Swazi’s flights to Zimbabwe’s capital just a temporary interruption.
Eswatini Air was founded in December, 2021. Its parent company, Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation previously ran Royal Air Swazi, and in the interim between airline incarnations has functioned as a travel agency.
