Zimbabwe’s Kariba Municipality has made land to the Government for the construction of a new airport that is expected to boost tourism in the area.
Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joram Gumbo said locations for new airports have already been identified in Beitbridge and Mutare last week. He added that moving the current airport to a new site would depend on an exponential increase in traffic to the destination.
“Basically we are trying to improve connectivity so that one can fly from Kariba to Buffalo Range and see Gonarezhou National Park, fly to Mutare and go to Hwange using small planes.
“We are giving ourselves a target to build new airports and also acquire small planes,” he said.
According to AllAfrica.com, Minister Gumbo said Government was working on an integrated air transport network that will bring convenient travel between Zimbabwe’s tourism destinations.
He said the programme, which will see the construction of new airports and upgrading of existing ones is aimed at improving air connectivity and subsequently lead to reduction in travel costs.
“We want to ensure that we have smaller planes that carry up to 100 passengers to travel to Kariba and fly to Hwange working with Air Zimbabwe,” he said.
“We can have a situation where people come to Harare and drop off in Kariba, proceed to Victoria Falls or Hwange. We want planes to criss-cross the country so that we promote tourism.”
Minister Gumbo said tourism has great potential to improve revenue and also promote downstream industries.
Improved air connectivity, he said, will help even legislators to travel for Parliament business.