Air Zimbabwe is about to restart its flights between Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport (HRE) in Harare and Gatwick Airport (LGW) in London. According to historical scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, these last operated in 2012 using Boeing 767 twinjets, with Royal Zimbabwe Airlines having also briefly served this route with the Boeing 767 in 2010 and 2011.
The carrier is one of three new or returning long-haul airlines at London Gatwick Airport this year, with the Sussex facility located to the south of the capital city of the United Kingdom having also welcomed AirAsia and Air Arabia. These intercontinental carriers join several new short-haul airlines on London Gatwick’s roster, as the airport looks to cash in on Heathrow’s more limited slot situation.
Air Zimbabwe’s return to London Gatwick Airport will take place on July 24, as confirmed on X (formerly known as Twitter) by UK Airline Schedule Analyst Sean M. Currently, the incomplete schedules list two weekly flights from Harare to London, leaving at 10:30 PM on Fridays (UM722) and 10:35 AM on Sundays (UM724), with one weekly return flight (UM723) leaving London at 9:35 PM on Sundays.
However, Air Zimbabwe reportedly plans to eventually expand its offering on this route to a more consistent thrice-weekly service, with flights operating on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays in both directions. As noted by ch-aviation, the services will be operated by wet-leased Plus Ultra Airbus A330s, due to Air Zimbabwe itself being banned from EU airspace. Europa Press quotes Plus Ultra as saying:
“This operation reinforces our growth strategy and the consolidation of the ACMI division as one of the company’s key areas.”
Elsewhere on the long-haul front, next month will see AirAsia X launch a new route from its main base at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) in Malaysia to London Gatwick via Bahrain (BAH). The reason for the en route stopover, as explored by Simple Flying at the time of the new service’s announcement, is the fact that AirAsia X’s high-density Airbus A330-300s do not have the range to fly nonstop.
According to data from Cirium, these widebody twinjets have a grand total of 377 seats on board, split between 12 in business class and a whopping 365 in economy. AirAsia X did previously serve the British capital, but primarily flew to London Stansted Airport (STN) using the Airbus A340-300. These services operated on a nonstop basis between 2009 and 2011, and switched to Gatwick before ending in 2012.
AirAsia X will operate its first flight from Kuala Lumpur to London via Bahrain on August 27, with the service initially running four times a week. However, November and December will see the frequency be boosted to daily, underlining the carrier’s confidence in strong demand over the northern winter season. 16 hours on a low-cost carrier is a tough sell, but, for some, the low fares will be too much to resist.
This inaugural flight marked the German leisure carrier’s debut in the UK, connecting Frankfurt and London with three daily services.
Of the three new long-haul airlines to serve London Gatwick Airport this year, only one has actually commenced operations on the route in question. This carrier is Air Arabia, which began flying to Gatwick from Sharjah International Airport (SHJ) in the United Arab Emirates on July 4. These flights initially operated once a day, but, as of tomorrow, a second daily frequency will be introduced for the rest of the year.
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Air Arabia’s aircraft of choice for this new route is the Airbus A321LR, which it operates with a relatively high-density layout featuring 215 economy class seats. Flying westbound from Sharjah to London, passengers can expect a maximum block time of seven hours and 50 minutes, underlining the A321LR’s long-haul credentials. The return leg is somewhat shorter, clocking in at seven hours and ten minutes.
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