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Malawian Airlines said it is in the process of securing fifth freedom traffic right with Zimbabwe and Mozambique to enable the carrier to pick and drop passengers between the two countries.
The fifth freedom allows airlines the right or privilege, in respect of scheduled international services, granted by one state to another, to put down and take on, in the territory of the first state, traffic coming from or destined to a third state.

Malawian Airlines, formed in July 2013, is a result of a joint venture with Ethiopian Airlines.

The airline’s sales and marketing executive Kingston Mbape told New Ziana that Malawian Airlines is in the process of acquiring the right from the two countries.

“We intend to fly from Harare to Tete in Mozambique using the same flight that wings Lilongwe, Blantyre but via Tete.

“However, we are actually working on acquiring the fifth freedom traffic right to enable us to pick passengers from Mozambique into Harare and vice versa and also pick passengers from Tete to Lilongwe and vice versa, a permission which is actually given by the respective governments that is Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

“This is a requirement and we are hoping that by the first of November if all goes well we should be operating that route. At the moment we pride ourselves that we are a safe airline with a 100 percent performance and we want to give what the customers want,” he said.

Currently, Malawian Airlines is operating regionally but has plans to go international.

Early this year, Qatar Airways secured the fifth freedom traffic rights in the Ivory Coast and Cyprus whilst Tanzania objected to RwandAir’s quests for the same right.

Mr Mbape said the airline intends to introduce a flight which will connect Harare-Dar es salam via Lilongwe because of the increase in traffic into Tanzania.

The Government recently signed 10 new air service agreements with unnamed airlines in Africa, Europe and Asia to fly into the country. – New Ziana.