Zambian owned airline, Proflight Zambia, announced on Tuesday that it had increased the capacity on its Lilongwe-Lusaka flights with the introduction of a larger aircraft on the route.
The Zambian airline, which flies daily direct from Lilongwe to Lusaka, has upgraded its aircraft on the one-hour-30-minute flight to a 29-seat Jetstream 41 aircraft, from the previous 18-seater Jetstream 32.
Proflight’s Lilongwe flights are designed to enable smooth connections onto Emirates flights from Lusaka to Dubai.
The airline has interline agreements with Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, South African Airways and RwandAir, enabling passengers to book through-flights with a single ticket.
The upgrade comes in the wake of a 60 percent increase in passenger numbers in the last two years.
Proflight commercial director, Keira Langford-Johnson, said in a statement that Lilongwe-Lusaka was an important route for the company and it was expected to continue to grow.
“We see Zambia as a hub providing seamless connectivity for travellers from Malawi who want to connect onward to destinations worldwide,” Langford-Johnson said.
Proflight’s Lilongwe service was launched in June 2013 as the airline’s first international route with a three-times-a-week schedule, and has grown steadily since then.
The airline said in future it would consider operating its 50-seat CRJ jet on the route if demand continued to grow.
Langford-Johnson attributed the rise in demand to a combination of international tourists, business travellers from both Malawi and Zambia, and people visiting family and friends.
