Eswatini’s RENAC secures E145s; now eyes 2Q22 debut

Royal Eswatini National Airways (Manzini King Mswati III Int’l) has secured a pair of E145s from HOP! (A5, Paris Orly) as it prepares to commence flight operations during the second quarter of 2022, Chief Executive Officer Qiniso Dhlamini has confirmed to The Times of Swaziland.

While he declined to identify the aircraft in question citing confidentiality concerns, they are “undergoing post-delivery maintenance and branding.” His earlier estimates had put the cost of each Embraer jet at around USD1 million.

Royal Eswatini National Airways (RENAC) plans to challenge Eswatini Airlink (Manzini Matsapha) in the Eswatini-South Africa market where the Airlink (South Africa)-co-owned carrier is currently the only player. From its Manzini base, RENAC plans to serve Johannesburg O.R. Tambo (7x weekly), Durban King Shaka (7x weekly), and Cape Town (4x weekly) in South Africa along with Harare Int’l (4x weekly) in Zimbabwe.

“With the number of travellers in and out of the country, by both road and air, there is enough traffic to accommodate two operators,” Dhlamini said. “Those passengers from all over the world, who land in Johannesburg and then come to Eswatini by road, will now have an option of connecting on our airline at our four destinations that have international connections and fly straight to Eswatini at affordable rates.”

The CEO said RENAC also plans to partner other international airlines, which would offer onward connectivity to other foreign destinations.