The launch which started with a city parade of the buses around Blantyre City on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 ended up at AXA new bus terminal in Limbe opposite Kalsum Plaza where Mayor of Blantyre City Council Noel Chalamanda was the guest of honor.
Describing it a turning point in the history of public transportation in Malawi, Chalamanda said the Super Coaches and custom-designed departure lounges will tremendously contribute to the improvement of road passenger services in the country.
“There can be no doubt that the transportation sector is the most critical sector of our economy and its positive impact on our social economic life cannot be overemphasized,” said Chalamanda.
“The reality about transportation is that it's future oriented. If we were planning for what we have, we are behind the curve,” he added.
He praised chairman of AGMA Holdings Limited, Mark Katsonga-Phiri, owners of AXA Bus Services, for venturing into the road passenger transport service, a sector which he said most Malawian companies were skeptical some nine years ago.
“I cannot help to imagine if Mr. Katsonga-Phiri had not thought of setting up through humble beginnings, AXA Coach and Bus Company; a company we all are proud to be associated with today,” he said.
Katsonga-Phiri said with the support from several Banks, his company has strived and the acquisition of five buses was part of the modernization drive and promised to add more to the fleet.
The new buses have an additional feature USB ports for charging electric gadgets such as mobile phones and laptops.
“We would like to send the message to our customer that AXA is back in town to maintain its values of punctuality, reliability, friendliness, luxurious and comfortability to serve them even better,” said Katsonga.