The lack of recent updates from my side on this thread can be explained by the fact I accidentally spilled some white wine on my macbook during a flight between Jakarta and Colombo (and it was my first glass of the day for the ones wondering ! ) and I could not really use my laptop after this unfortunate event until I got a replacement during the Christmas holidays...
So I am in AMS in the BA lounge and I am starting today the second half of my sabbatical round the world trip - more motivated than ever !

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After 3 eventful days in the region of Victoria falls, it was time to end this African adventure and go back to Johannesburg, and later the U.A.E.

The 11th post of my blog summarizes the few days we spent in the Victoria Falls region (Post11 ? Boarding:Now! ? My round the world experience !)

Victoria Falls airport is located about 30 min by car away from the city and the international terminal was built a few years ago only as it looks very new and shiny.

















Checking our bags took about 10 minutes as a group of French tourists was before us and using the business class counters by mistake. Security clearance and immigration took about 30 minutes in total, partly due to the large amount of passengers flying out at the same moment (an Airbus 330 from South African was departing around the same time as us), but also due to the few power shutdowns which occured in the terminal (we had 3 in 30 minutes only). Funny (or Scary) enough, a few passengers went through the metal detector while the power was off… Liquids were not requested to be taken off, but they requested every passengers to remove their shoes to go through X-Ray. Safety first ! / ? (choose the punctuation you would feel appropriate to apply here )


VFA security check point during a power shut-down



The terminal was easy to navigate in, with a few souvenir shops, a café and 2 lounges. Note that BA/Comair does NOT have a partnership with any of those lounges, so status holders or business class passengers are not eligible to use a lounge in VFA airport. However, we were able to visit the biggest lounge of the two thanks to my Priority pass membership. The other lounge is much smaller (like the size of a living room) and is a pay per use lounge.


VFA airport terminal




Quite empty duty free store...

There is not much to eat inside the lounge besides basic cheese sandwiches and potato chips. There is however a lot of adult beverages selection… This unfortunately summarizes the economical situation of Zimbabwe, where food availability is quite scarce and certainly extremely expensive, but surprisingly (and sadly) enough, alcohol is quite cheap…


VFA business class lounge (Priority pass only)


Way more booze than food...






International departures of the day...

Boarding started at 1330 and for once, the aircraft was connected to a jet bridge !




ZS-ZWG in VFA airport



British Airways (operated by Comair) flight BA6282, November 12th 2018
VFA Victoria Falls – 13:55
JNB Johannesburg O.R Tambo – 15:35
Boeing 737-800 – ZS-ZWG – Seat 01F, Business class, window.

I started by then to be quite used to the comair business class configuration… The legroom was ok, the usual pre-departure drink was served (I opted for some bubbly) and we took off at 1400 with some views on the domestic terminal where an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737 was waiting.




Legroom on seat 01F


Welcome bubbly


VFA airport international terminal


Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737-300

The usual meal tray was served and I opted this time for the vegetarian couscous. I do not recall how it tasted so I assume the dish was nothing to write much about. The service was good, but quite long, but I was able to work a bit since there was a middle table between our two seats.


Take off from VFA






Vegetarian option

We landed at 1530 and taxied for a good 5 minutes towards the domestic terminal of JNB where a bus was waiting to bring us to the international arrivals area. You start to know the story by now… Immigration took about 20 minutes to complete and we were ready to go to the Protea JNB airport hotel for my short night (my friends flight was the next day at noon, so she had a regular night ). This hotel was actually quite nice and had lots of nerdy aviation stuff. I liked it !


Landing in JNB


Protea hotel JNB airport


View from the Protea hotel JNB airport