Cabinet announces transfer of Southdowns, Mbala airports to Zambia Air Force

Cabinet has approved the transfer of Southdowns Airport to Zambia Air Force (ZAF).

It further announced the revision of the full management of Mbala Airport to ZAF.

Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, said approval would be made in principle, on the operations of civilian aircrafts into Southdowns and Mbala airports respectively, whenever such need arose.

Mweetwa in a statement issued in Lusaka on Friday, said Southdowns and Mbala Airports were currently under the management of Zambia Airports Corporation Limited (ZACL).

He noted that it had, however, been difficult for Southdowns and Mbala Airports to attract scheduled aircraft operations and fully develop into commercial facilities.

“This is the major reason for the decision by Cabinet for the two airports to be managed by ZAF going forward,” the minister said.

Mweetwa also said Cabinet agreed to the upward adjustment of the Rates for Hire of the assorted Zambia National Service Equipment under the Land Development Branch (LDB).

“This is to bring them to the current prevailing rates in the market, that are charged by the private sector players that are in the same business as the LDB of the Zambia National Service,” Mweetwa said.

He added that these would improve LDB’s revenue base and also enable it to recapitalise by way of procuring new and state of the art earth moving equipment, its requisite accessories and components.

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