{"id":417639,"date":"2026-09-09T09:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/417639\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T09:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:32:12","slug":"fastjet-zimbabwe-to-extend-a320-ops-to-4q26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/417639\/","title":{"rendered":"Fastjet Zimbabwe to extend A320 ops to 4Q26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airlines\/FZW\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fastjet Zimbabwe<\/a> (FN, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airports\/5509\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harare International<\/a>)  will extend the operation of its wet-leased <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/aircraft-variants\/A320200\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A320-200<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airlines\/GBB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Global Aviation Operations<\/a> to the end of October 2026 following stronger-than-expected passenger demand, with the aircraft also set to return for the December peak travel season.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the airline said that the 168-seater ZS-GAC (msn 2496), which entered service on August 1, 2026, to support high-demand flights between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airports\/5509\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harare International<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airports\/5460\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Johannesburg O.R. Tambo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airports\/5514\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victoria Falls<\/a> and Johannesburg, had seen sustained demand from both business and leisure travellers. The aircraft had originally been scheduled to operate only during the August-September peak.<\/p>\n<p>Fastjet Zimbabwe business CEO and country head Donahue Cortes said the extension would ensure sufficient capacity during October and the December festive period, adding that the airline&#8217;s recently introduced business class product had been well received by corporate and leisure passengers alike.<\/p>\n<p>The A320 deployment forms part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/news\/169643-fastjet-zimbabwe-trials-a320-weighs-permanent-2027-addition\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">broader fleet evaluation<\/a> that could see the type join the fleet permanently in 2027. Cortes previously said the wet lease would allow Fastjet Zimbabwe to assess the aircraft&#8217;s suitability for its network before making a long-term fleet decision.<\/p>\n<p>Fastjet Group CEO Kirsten King previously said the upgauge had removed the need to source additional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/aircraft-data\/ER4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">E145<\/a> capacity for the peak months and that larger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airlines\/EMB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Embraer<\/a> aircraft were no longer under consideration.<\/p>\n<p>Fastjet Zimbabwe had been seeking additional capacity on its flagship Harare-Johannesburg route, where it was competing with 50-seater E145s against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airlines\/FFS\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FlySafair<\/a>&#8216;s twice-daily <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/aircraft-variants\/B737800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">B737-800<\/a> services, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airlines\/SA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South African Airways<\/a>&#8216; twice-daily A320-200 operations, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/airlines\/LNK\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Airlink (South Africa)<\/a>&#8216;s six daily <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ch-aviation.com\/aircraft-data\/E90\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">E190<\/a> flights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fastjet Zimbabwe (FN, Harare International) will extend the operation of its wet-leased A320-200 from Global Aviation Operations to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[60],"tags":[2632,2640,2628,2638,2636,2635,2631,2637,2625,2639,2626,2633,2634,2629,2627,2630,106],"class_list":["post-417639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zimbabwe","tag-aircraft-orders","tag-alliances","tag-new-routes","tag-operator-acquisition","tag-operator-bankruptcies","tag-operator-bankruptcy","tag-operator-fleet-news","tag-operator-merger","tag-operator-news","tag-operator-partnership","tag-operator-route-network","tag-operator-start-up","tag-operator-start-ups","tag-route-cancellations","tag-route-network-changes","tag-strategic-fleet-developments","tag-zimbabwe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117240394170594819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}