Air Rhodesia was the national airline

Flag carrier

A flag carrier is a transportation company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given country, enjoys preferential rights or privileges, accorded by the government, for international operations. It may be a state-run, state-owned or private but...

 of Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

. Its head office was located on the property of Salisbury Airport

Harare International Airport

Harare International Airport is an airport in Harare, Zimbabwe. The airport is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and is the hub of Air Zimbabwe. The airport's runway, at , is one of the longest in Africa. It compares with OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South...

 in Salisbury

Harare

Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...

.

It was originally formed as a subsidiary of Central African Airways

Central African Airways

Central African Airways was formed in 1946 from the wartime Southern Rhodesian Air Services , which was in turn formed from the pre-war Rhodesia And Nyasaland Airways and Southern Rhodesia Air Force communications squadron...

 in June 1964, but became an independent corporation on September 1, 1967. Air Rhodesia flew internal routes to Buffalo Range, Bulawayo

Bulawayo

Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...

, Fort Victoria

Masvingo

Masvingo is a town in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The town is close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name.- History :...

, Kariba

Kariba

Kariba is a town in Mashonaland West province, Zimbabwe, located close to the Kariba Dam at the northwestern end of Lake Kariba, near the Zambian border. According to the 1992 Population Census, the town had a population of 20,736....

, and Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe.-Introduction:...

. During the 1970s the airline had international flights to Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

 and Durban

Durban

Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...

 in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Beira

Beira, Mozambique

Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique. It lies in the central region of the country in Sofala Province, where the Pungue River meets the Indian Ocean. Beira had a population of 412,588 in 1997, which grew to an estimated 546,000 in 2006...

, Vilanculos and Lourenço Marques

Maputo

Maputo, also known as Lourenço Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. It is known as the City of Acacias in reference to acacia trees commonly found along its avenues and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription "This is Portugal" on the walkway of its...

 in Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

, and Blantyre

Blantyre, Malawi

Blantyre or Mandala is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, the largest city with an estimated 732,518 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe...

 in Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

.

Its mainstay aircraft were Vickers Viscount 700D

Vickers Viscount

The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...

 and the Boeing 720-025

Boeing 707

The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...

, three of which were successfully purchased in April 1973 in spite of sanctions against the Rhodesian government. Following the renaming of the country, it became known as Air Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, and then reformed as Air Zimbabwe

Air Zimbabwe

Air Zimbabwe is the national airline of Zimbabwe, headquartered in Harare. From its hub at Harare International Airport, the carrier operates a network within southern Africa that also includes Asia and London-Gatwick. The company is a member of the International Air Transport Association, and of...

 in 1980.

Aircraft

• Douglas C-47 - VP-YKP, VP-YNH
• Vickers Viscount 748D - VP-YNB, VP-YNC, VP-YND
• Vickers Viscount 754D - VP-YTE (2), VP-WAR
• Vickers Viscount 756D - VP-YNI
• Vickers Viscount 782D - VP-WAS, VP-WAT
• Boeing 720-025A - VP-YNL, VP-YNM, VP-YNN

Incidents and accidents

• Vickers Viscount, Flight RH825
  Air Rhodesia Flight RH825
  Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a scheduled flight from Kariba, Rhodesia to Salisbury, Rhodesia that was shot down on September 3, 1978 by ZIPRA guerrillas using a Strela 2 missile -Incident:...
  
  , 3 September, 1978 - shot down by a Strela
  Strela 2
  The 9K32 “Strela-2” is a man-portable, shoulder-fired, low-altitude surface-to-air missile system with a high explosive warhead and passive infrared homing guidance...
  
   missile near Kariba Dam
  Kariba Dam
  The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the largest dams in the world, standing tall and long.- Construction :...
  
   by ZIPRA terrorists. 18 of the 56 passengers survived the crash, but ten of them were brutally hacked to death on the ground by a group of ZIPRA
  ZIPRA
  Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army was the armed wing of the Zimbabwe African People's Union, a political party in Rhodesia. It participated in the Second Chimurenga against white minority rule in the former Rhodesia....
  
   terrorists, .
• Vickers Viscount, Flight RH827
  Air Rhodesia Flight RH827
  Air Rhodesia Flight 827, the Umniati, was a scheduled flight RH827 between Kariba and Salisbury that was shot down on 12 February 1979 by ZIPRA terrorists using a Strela 2 missile soon after take-off...
  
  , 12 February, 1979 - also shot down by a Strela missile near Kariba Dam by ZIPRA terrorists; all 59 people on board died.