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country is to claim its fair share of the aviation and tourism industries.
The chaos reigning at Air Zimbabwe has put paid to previous gains while compromising Zimbabwe’s ability to attract and cater for visitors. A dysfunctional national airline affects the entire tourism matrix while also negatively impacting on other sectors of the economy.
The past few weeks have witnessed no-holds-barred attacks on Air Zimbabwe, with suggestions that the skies should be opened up to other airlines, sooner rather than later.
Secretary for Tourism and Hospitality Dr Sylvester Maunganidze said in an interview at Victoria Falls last week he was saddened by the situation at Air Zimbabwe.
“Without a functioning airline it will be very difficult to achieve the results we want to achieve. We have engaged the Ministry of Transport, to open up the skies,” he said.
“Unless we go back to the pre-1999 levels, when we used to have plus or minus 46 airlines flying into Zimbabwe, we will not be able to compete with the best in the region.”
He said transport played a key role in promoting tourism. Zimbabwe was a signatory of the Yamashuku Accord that encourages the freeing of regional airlines and there was scope for the local airline to partner with other regional airlines.
Dr Maunganidze said Air Zimbabwe did not have the capacity to satisfy even the local demand.
Rainbow Tourism Group acting chairman Mr Godfrey Manhambara had no kind words for Air Zimbabwe.
“What is happening at Air Zimbabwe is totally unacceptable,” he said. “Other airlines should certainly come on board. Imagine that in such countries as Kenya you have 10 daily flights between Nairobi and Mombasa and here we are struggling to fly from Harare to Victoria Falls.”
RTG chief executive Chipo Mtasa was also of the view that the solution was in allowing more airlines into the country.
“The Air Zimbabwe issue is a tragic one,” she said. “Tourism is about team effort and the transport side of things should be addressed urgently.
We should just allow other operators to help take tourism to the next level. Obviously, Air Zimbabwe does not have the capacity. So, why not allow other players to come in?”
Last Wednesday, more than 60 delegates to the A’Zambezi River Lodge relaunch were stranded after Air Zimbabwe grounded all its aircraft. RTG was forced to charter private planes. Air Zimbabwe was last week was forced to ground all its planes which were said to be “too old to fly”.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe had indicated that three of Air Zimbabwe’s Boeing 737s had passed their design service objective of 20 years and had become expensive to run. But last week Boeing said the planes were still fit to fly.
However, Air Zimbabwe has also been affected by its suspension from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) over a US$280 000 debt. The suspension affects Air Zim’s bookings from abroad because it would not be on IATA’s 60 000 accredited travel agents worldwide.
The airline recently had one of its leased aircrafts withdrawn over a US$480 000 debt to Zambezi Airlines. Air Zimbabwe is also saddled with a multimillion dollar debt that has constrained its operations. Its pilots, engineers and other workers have gone on strike intermittently over the past few years, further compounding the situation.
Furthermore, Secretary for Transport Partson Mbiriri was quoted this week as saying Air Zim had shelved plans to purchase two new planes to complement the existing fleet.
“I think you are aware of the operational challenges faced by the organisation. That is what we have to deal with first,” he was quoted as saying on Monday.
The airline had announced recently that it intended to buy two airbuses at a cost of US$260 million each.
Online Reporter