RENAC receives Zimbabwe FOP, airline codes by AITA

By Bahle Gama

The Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation has received its Foreign Operator Permit (FOP) for Zimbabwe and further assigned airline codes by the International Air Transport Association (AITA).

In a statement, RENAC CEO Qiniso Dhlamini stated that since the approval of the country’s Air Operator Certificate (AOC), several preparatory and post-AOC had been initiated and tremendous progress in securing documentation to operate to the different destinations had been made.

Other than the FOP for Zimbabwe, another for South Africa is in progress.

“We expect to have everything regarding that smoothed out very soon,” he said.

The assigned AITA two-letter code for Eswatini is RN while the three-digit accounting prefix is 507.

“The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also assigned codes used for airline identification when operating international flights. These codes are used for facilitating communication between the airline and Air Navigation Services Providers or Airspace Management agencies. The two codes applicable are SZL as the three-letter designator, and Eswatini as the Telephony designator,” he said.

On top of that, RENAC applied for landing and departure slots at OR Tambo International, King Shaka International, and Cape Town International in South Africa. Another was also applied for at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Zimbabwe.

The CEO stated that as soon as these outstanding matters are cleared, systems will be updated and schedules and pricing will be published to allow for the commencement of trading and flying passengers to the different destinations.

Regarding when these are projected to take effect, he said “at the present moment, we can’t set a definite date for our maiden flight as the turnaround time for the outstanding process is dependent on various factors beyond our control. We, however, envisage taking to the skies at the beginning of the next IATA season, which is March 26.”

The CEO added that due to the work that still needs to happen in the background to ensure they operate at their optimum best, they have seen it fit to break their launch into three phases.

“We envisage starting with one destination and the two others will be added after an interim period of less than one month, with phase III whereby we add the fourth destination being the final stage. The exact dates for each phase and sequence of destinations will be announced as soon as the outstanding processes have been finalised,” he said.

Meanwhile, RENAC has also embarked on the recruitment of required personnel and training is underway for them to be ready by the launch date.