Acting Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Budgeting and Planning Brian Kambita says his committee is concerned with complaints that Zambia has the highest tax regime for airport fees in Africa.
Acting Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Budgeting and Planning Brian Kambita says these concerns by tour operators among others need to be addressed to attract more tourists.
Mr Kambita notes that there is need for a multi-sectoral approach between the Zambia Airports Corporation, the Ministry of Finance, and the tour operates to harmonies the non-tax revenue in the tourism industry to boost the Sector.
Parliamentary Committee on Budgeting and Planning which is touring three provinces Southern Province, Lusaka, and Copperbelt to get the first-hand information on non-tax revenue in the tourism sector said Zambia is among the most expensive destinations in Africa.
Acting Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Budgeting and Planning Brian Kambita said this when the committee visited the Zambia Airport corporation at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport that the visit to the institutions to ascertain how the country can benefit from the non-tax revenue.
And Kafue Member of Parliament (MP) Mirriam Chonya said the concerns of Zambia being the most expensive destination is a thorny issue and has the potential to affect the tourism industry.
Chama South lawmaker Davison Munga’ndu pointed out that although the Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula airport is better than the airport on the Zimbabwean side, the latter records more arrivals of tourists than Zambia because of high airport fees.
Mr Munga’ndu lamented that in the past five years he has been in parliament under tourism committee, concerns of high fees have yet to be addressed.
He questioned the benefit of having better infrastructure, charge high fees, and yet there are few arrivals on the Zambian airports.
Malole Member of Parliament Robert Kalimi said Zambia Airport Corporation’s failure to use the first secretaries in embassies to help them to conduct a study on the high fees being charged by other countries for them to be competitive is not helping matters.
However, Zambia Airports Director corporate Strategy and Planning Cosam Ngoma said diplomatic engagement is one of the issues in their strategic plan to address the issues of high fees so that the corporation can operate effectively.
Zambia Airports Corporation acting CEO Maggie Kaunda, on her part , said the Ministry of Transport is working on reducing the landing and parking charges for the corporation to be competitive on the international market.
She also highlighted the problems being faced by the corporation as limited air traffic, volatility of the aviation industry, fluctuations of the exchange rate, old ground equipment.
Ms Kaunda said the strategic plan for the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport is to apportion part for their vast land for the Economic Zone to encourage investment.
“ The other plan is to expand the list of countries that can obtain visa on arrival and to promote of domestic tourism to grow the industry, “ she said.
The Acting Chief Executive officer noted that the aim of the corporation is to increase its income base to reduce on high fees being charged for parking and landing so that it will benefit travelers in the long run.
National Airport Corporation planning and Business Development manager Josiah Mvula disclosed that the ministry of Transport and logistics has come up with measures to reduce the landing and parking by 25 percent and ten percent, respectively.
Mr Mvula said the plan is to reduce from parking fees from 5 dollars per to 10 dollars per day.
Earlier the Parliamentary committee on budgeting and Planning paid a courtesy call on Lusaka province Permanent Secretary Robert Kamalata and highlighted that non-tax revenue in the country is too low.
Mr Kamalata said the province is at times overshadowed in handling activities because it hosts all the government Ministries which at times takes even the activities that the province is supposed to do.
Crush the cartel and start afresh. Like fleas, a new order will emerge but hopefully it will be a humane one.
So how much does Zambia charge in airport fees? We hv been told wht Zambia charges is the highest in Africa but we hv not been told what the charge is. Some reporting!
ka simple comparison will do example for service A (overnight layover), kenya and Uganda charge $20 while Zambia charges $100
WELL WELL WHEN AN AIRPORT IS BUILT ON DREAMS WITH AN EXPECTANCY OF OVER 3 MILLION VISITORS WHAT DO YOU EXPECT
WE COULD HAVE DONE WITH ONE HALF THE SIZE AND MAYBE AT HALF THE COST
SO THANK YOU PF FOR YOUR GRAND IDEAS
You are in charge just reduce the damn thing.
“……..She also highlighted the problems being faced by the corporation as limited air traffic, volatility of the aviation industry,……..”
Well………..
These high costs are to cover for the 2 million passengers/year…..or the mote than 100 planes landing every week in zambia…………
As these are the numbers KK international airport high cost was based on…………..
When we told you that airport was too expensive and too ambitious……….
, we were told we were jealous……..
Look now………
The criminal lungu regime is responsible for the wide ranging economic malaise we are seeing……….
Commission and kickbacks over ruled all common sense………….
Zambia would have gotten away with half that airport in Lusaka…………
Tourists from abroad who want to visit Vic Falls go to Zimbabwe. Half the money, much better facilities and – most importantly – no harassment by those stup!d curio sellers!
Oh yes, I forgot, Zimbabwe has FRIENDLY immigration officials at the border, in Zambia tourists entering the country have to wait an hour, pay ridiculous amounts of money and endure grumpy officers who feel tourists have to be GRATEFUL for receiving a stamp in their passport. No guys, YOU have to be thankful for tourists coming to Zambia in the first place!
All of you above have this all wrong seemingly, the real reason is that all our three Int’ airports were built by the nkongole hefty money, no wonder we are the main airport that is welcoming visitors in the Chinese language. And this explains why we are the highest fees. No one else in Africa has the word “Welcome” at their airport written in HongKong Mandarin.
Which simply means even the charged prices will quoted in the language of the welcomer
Im starting to see the same thing with the new state of the art Conference center, wait and see what you ll be charged for a simple wedding there,even when the hall will empty. The problem is that Lungu negotiated with the Cheng Chengs with his jameson in his heard. Chinese dont give anything for free, they tell u”My friend bilateral,i build free, i control 100yrs”. You acree,yes no acree? meaning agree, then Lungu & Chikwanda were like yes twasumina. And the rest is where you are now
Including the most expensive fuel and highest cost of living. That is part and parcel of life under upnd. Even the upnd vuvuzelas do not want to return to zambia e.g. step aside and all those upnd diasporans abroad. A sign of how bad things are. Next time vote wisely
Because Lungu and his PF balisumina kale, even before a single brick was laid. To add salt to the injury, They go and outsource Ethiopians Airlines to manage and launch the national Carrier. Again here, they paid Ethiopean Airlines a single cent for the aircraft and agreed that Ethiopean Airlines again, “control 100yrs”, So yes the idea of national carrier was welcome but i wouldnt object it if we are to ground it again and start a truly Zambian oriented national carrier. This nonsense of 100years is coming back to bite future generations as you can see with excessive fees charged by Zambia Airways and there utterly nothing,nothing GRZ can do to stop it-nothing, They dont ve the power. 100years has the power.
@Kaizar Sosala: How is the minister of Africa? Am sure you could hear the sirens outside your room via high way London boulevard mate? Unless you are living in Britain and she lives in the UK?
YES YES YES NEXT TIME VOTE WISELY AGAIN REMEMBER FORWARD WE GO
WILL THE PF EVEN BE AROUND THEN ? WHO KNOWS
THEY WILL GET 2 VOTES KZ & SALOUSI SHAME
@9 No Corruption Zambia
I thought it was only me…why do Zambians behave like this….even when you offer them something it’s like you the one who is suppose to say ” thank you for accepting my gift,”
The problem is not the size of the airport. Its the overpriced 10%s paid God knows how many CORRUPT PFs. What is annuing is that KKIA also offers the poorest services. You wait a longbtime to offload luggage on smokey polluting tractors. The passenger bridges still dont work. Catering servuces are so substandard with no hot meals. So many poor services its laughable.
Pathetic Reporting
Its the price of free news on the internet. Half cooked stories everyday. Are there no trained journalists out there?
#18Â Â Steve
 April 9, 2022 At 10:01 pm
“The problem is not the size of the airport. Its the overpriced 10%s paid God knows how many CORRUPT PFs. What …….”
Where are the 2 million passengers , that the airport was meant to cater for , going to come from ???