Proflight cuts fares

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The Zambian government has removed a 5% customs duty on aviation fuel and Proflight Zambia is passing this saving on to its customers with immediate effect.

The goodwill gesture comes despite the fact that fuel represents around 30% of Proflight’s costs, and thus overall savings to the airline are only around 1.5% of the total costs. In addition, fuel stocks from 2014 are still being used, hence the duty removal has not yet been passed on to the airline by suppliers.

Notwithstanding the fare reduction, Proflight pointed out that the aviation sector is a US dollar-intensive industry, with much of its costs are denominated in foreign exchange, including aircraft leasing and maintenance, and thus the depreciation of the Zambian kwacha in recent months has driven up costs in kwacha terms.