Zambia Airways: Quick Reference Timetable, Winter 1995

 Staying the Eastern and Southern portion of Africa, here is an historic document from nearly twenty years ago, a quick reference timetable for Zambia Airways which expired on 25 March 1995. The cover provides an index to five pages of flight services, divided from and to Lusaka, the little airline's all-important hub. At the top, an international route network shows flights to five southern African capitals: Lilongwe, Gaborone, Johannesburg, Manzini and Harare, as well as a more distant service to Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam. Two longer flag-ship routes, to Bombay and London, were undoubtedly the pride of the company. Other regional and domestic routes to Lubumbashi, Ndola, Chipata, Mansa, Kasama and Mfuwe are listed inside the timetable but not shown on the map.

Zambia Airways Routes, c.1980

A vintage (though undated) Zambia Airways timetable cover features a route map which fascinates with where the state carrier both did and did not fly. The only ex-African routes are to Europe, with non stops to London and Rome, the latter which branches off firstly to Frankfurt and then, bizarrely, to Belgrade. While East Africa's capitals are included, neither Rhodesia nor South Africa are served, presumably blockaded due to apartheid. No domestic routes are shown, aside from service from Livingston, at Victoria Falls. Maputo's Portuguese name is provided in parenthesis. The farthest eastern destination is Mauritius; the airline had yet to reach Bombay or Jeddah. There are no West African services, much less than flagship route to New York.

Zambian Airways: Domestic and Regional Routes, c.2008

Via this website, showing the full-extent of the now-defunct Zambian Airways, around the height of its operation in perhaps 2008. Regional operations, apparently with two decrepit B737-200s, reached as far as Harare, Lilongwe, and Lubumbashi from Lusaka, and operated a second base at the center of the copperbelt, Ndola.

This airline is unrelated to the much older, larger, but equally moribund Zambia Airways, which used to stretch from New York to Bombay, with dozens of destinations in between.

Although descendant of an aviation enterprise stretching back to 1948, the formally-named Zambian Airway's reach and lifetime was much more limited. Having come in to the national name in 1998, in the wake of Zambia Airway's 1994 collapse, Zambian Airways itself suspended service in January 2009, which led to the government filing suit against the airline the following month. Zambia today is without a state carrier, although the privately-held Zambezi Airways reportedly covers southern Africa from Lusaka.

Zambia Airways: A Warm Welcome At Heathrow, c.1980

A colorless advert is a bit of a cold way to boast of a warm welcome, and isn't best to convey the exotic colors of southern Africa. In fact, this 1980s advertisement (the models' clothing suggests that the decade had just turned) gives minimal indication of the adventuresome destination that it purports to promote.

Rather than talk wildlife or people, the bland subject at hand is ease of check-in, which is hardly a selling point for leisure travelers picking a safari stop. And while this topic and the lack of color on the print is dull enough, it is the lack of pigment in the models which is all the more displeasing. While this ad may be directed at British tourists, its strange that even the counter clerk seems not to be of African descent. On the whole, the atmosphere of the page would make one think of the drudgery of Victoria Station, not the glory of Victoria Falls.

Lufthansa/Zambia Airways Joint Venture: Frankfurt-Lusaka

This Erstflug briefmark apparently did not warrant the issuance of special envelope, but did prompt the production of a special cancellation stamp, with the twin disc logos of Lufthansa and Zambia Airways, celebrating non-stop Frankfurt-Lusaka service with a B707 in 1976.