Eswatini Air is a new Eswatini-based airline and the new flag carrier for the nation, formerly known as Swaziland.

The new airline was originally planning to commence operations in June 2022 but was delayed.

The AOC was obtained in December 2022.

Operations are scheduled to commence on March 26, 2023 with initial flights to Johannesburg, with expanding service to Durban, Cape Town and Harare.

The company issued this statement:

Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) would like to update stakeholders and the general public on the latest developments about Eswatini Air taking to the skies.

Since the approval of our Air Operator Certificate (AOC), several preparatory and post-AOC actions have been initiated. We have made tremendous progress in securing the necessary documentation to operate to the different destinations we will be flying to.

So far, we have received our Foreign Operator Permit (FOP) for Zimbabwe and the FOP for South Africa is in the process. We expect to have everything regarding that smoothed out very soon.

RENAC has also been assigned airline codes by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The assigned IATA 2 letter code is R/ while the IATA 3 digit accounting prefix is 507. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also assigned codes used for airline identification when operating international flights. These codes are used for facilitating communication between the airline and Air Navigation Services Providers or Airspace Management agencies. The two codes applicable are SZL
as the 3 letter designator, and Eswatini is the Telephony designator.

Following that, we applied for landing and departure slots at OR Tambo International, King Shaka International, Cape Town International in South Africa and at Robert Gabriel Mugabe (Harare) International Airport in Zimbabwe.