Air Zimbabwe landed its first scheduled commercial flight into Masvingo on Saturday, 5 September, carrying delegates and international travel buyers for the 19th Sanganai/Hlanganani/Dzimbahwe World Tourism Expo. It's the first time in years the city has had scheduled commercial air access.
An eight-day schedule built around one expo
The flights, run in partnership with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, operate from 5 to 12 September on an ATR 42-500 aircraft, according to Pindula News. The inaugural Harare-Masvingo flight carried between 39 and 48 passengers depending on the outlet's count, a strong showing for a route that ordinarily doesn't exist.
Spiked Media's breakdown of the flight timetable shows the schedule is deliberately built around expo logistics rather than general travel demand. The first three days, 5, 7, and 8 September, run same-day Harare-Masvingo-Harare shuttles for organisers and exhibitors moving in ahead of the expo's 9 September opening. On the expo's closing day, 12 September, the airline runs six sectors across two aircraft, including the schedule's most interesting product: a same-day Masvingo-Victoria Falls-Masvingo loop, landing at the Falls at 0930 and back in Masvingo by 1120, giving delegates a same-day round trip between two of Zimbabwe's headline attractions.
Fares are set at $100 one way and $175 return for Harare-Masvingo, and $240 one way and $360 return for the Victoria Falls route, per Zimbabwe Situation's coverage. Air Zimbabwe also introduced flights linking Harare and Chiredzi from 5 September, per the same report.
Why Masvingo, and why now
The Sanganai/Hlanganani expo, Zimbabwe's flagship tourism trade fair, ran for years out of Harare and Bulawayo before the government began rotating it across provinces, with the 2025 edition already breaking that pattern in Mutare, Manicaland. Moving the 2026 edition to Masvingo, home to the Great Zimbabwe National Monument, continues that push to showcase heritage tourism outside the biggest cities, but that only works if buyers and delegates can actually get there. Tourism Minister Barbara Rwodzi told 263Chat that nearly 140 international buyers are expected at the expo, and that the new air links are helping drive that movement. It's the same kind of attention the country is chasing elsewhere too, see our piece on how Zimbabwe made it onto Kelis's list of favourite African countries as the expo was getting underway.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa was expected to officially open the expo on 9 September at the Gymkhana Events and Conference Centre.
What happens after the expo ends
The honest question hanging over this launch is what happens to Masvingo's air access once the expo wraps on 12 September. Spiked Media's report is blunt about it: the last Air Zimbabwe aircraft was scheduled to lift out of Masvingo that afternoon, "and the airport will presumably go back to charters and quiet." Whether this becomes a recurring or permanent route, rather than a one-off built for a single trade fair, will depend on whether the demand shown this week, 263Chat notes the inaugural flight's near-full load as "immediate demand", holds up without an expo to justify it.
Sources
- Air Zimbabwe introduces Harare-Masvingo, Vic Falls-Masvingo flights ahead of Sanganai Expo, Pindula News
- Sanganai/Hlanganani World Travel Expo: The week Masvingo gets an airline, Spiked Media
- Air Zim introduces direct flights to Masvingo, Zimbabwe Situation
- Air Zimbabwe Opens New Route as Masvingo Targets Tourism, Trade Growth, 263Chat
