They procured two aircraft last year , and as per the plan , the Eswatini Air inaugural flight landed to much excitement at O.R. Tambo International Airport at 8:35 on Sunday, 26 March 2023.
Minister of Public Works and Transport in Eswatini, Chief Ndlaluhlaz Ndwandwe and RENAC CEO Captain President Qiniso Dhlamini joined passengers on the inaugural flight from Eswatini.
Originally Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) , the corporation unveiled its new trading name as Eswatini Air last year.
At that time, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RENAC Captain President Qiniso Dhlamini had said Eswatini Air was the new name of the National Airline of the Kingdom of Eswatini and the logo depicted the national carrier’s new identity.
He said the new symbol was made up of a bateleur eagle (Ingculungculu), a bird which was part of Eswatini’s eco-system, known as one of Africa’s most majestic eagles and famous for its acrobatic displays and rocking in flight stunts.
“There is no better symbol than the eagle to depict the vision and tenacity of RENAC as we branch into scheduled airline operations,” said the CEO.
Dhlamini said as an airline that hailed from the Kingdom of Eswatini whose sole motive and mandate was to uplift the socio-economic aspirations of our kingdom, the corporate colours of Eswatini Air represented the Kingdom’s national flag, underpinning the national airline status.
“Our slogan ‘Everyone must fly’ expresses our commitment towards making air travel services affordable to our people. We aim to transform flying from being a luxury into something that forms part of emaSwati’s everyday life by operating relevant routes and making the services affordable,” said Dhlamini.
During the official inaugural programme, attended by representatives from the South African government; Kingdom of Eswatini government; ACSA; Gauteng Air Access Network (GAAN) and South African Tourism; Captain Dhlamini expressed gratitude for the warm reception they received when they were applying for slots at ACSA and mentioned that they will soon be flying to Cape Town International and King Shaka International.
South African High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Eswatini — Advocate Thoko. J. Sipamla-Majokweni thanked His Majesty for the vision of Eswatini Air and spoke on how intractably linked the two countries are and wished the airline all the success.
Embraer congratulated the newest African carrier saying,
Congratulations Eswatini Air! The African airline started flying today. It has 2 ERJ145s that link Manzini with Johannesburg and Harare.
Effective today, the carrier will operate two flights per day (an early morning rotation and a late afternoon rotation) from King Mswati III International (SHO) to Johannesburg (JNB).
