Zimbabwe has just announced that the country’s two (mostly) grounded airlines — Air Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Airways — are merging. This is just so ridiculous and pathetic.
For those of you not up to speed on aviation in Zimbabwe, the country’s government owned airline, Air Zimbabwe, was about 300 million USD in debt. So what did the country do? They announced that they’d acquire four 777s that they would lease to a start-up airline, called Zimbabwe Airways.
Naturally when you want to start a new airline you immediately order four widebodies, because that’s the best way to start a profitable airline… not.
Much of the corruption in Zimbabwe over the past decades has centered around Robert Mugabe. The country claimed that the new airline had nothing at all to do with him. However, when the plane (with the registration code Z-RGM, with “RGM” coincidentally being Robert Mugabe’s initials) touched down at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport with Robert Mugabe’s son-in-law emerging from the plane in a captain’s uniform, a lot of us were left scratching our heads.
Since the airline acquired their first 777, they haven’t actually operated a commercial flight. Rather the plane was flown back to Kuala Lumpur for maintenance. According to officials, the delay in launching commercial operations was that the airline had no trained pilots to operate the plane, and they realized acquiring ex-pat pilots is expensive.
It has now been several months since we’ve heard much about Zimbabwe Airways, so we have an update at last.
Zimbabwe’s transport minister has announced that the country’s two airlines are merging. According to New Zimbabwe:
“I would like to inform the nation that Zimbabwe Airways is a government entity.”
“It is important to know that Air Zimbabwe does not have the adequate aircraft mix, an issue which has forced the airline to operate at a deficit.
“With the new aircraft in place government intends to merge Air Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Airways to complement one another on local and international routes.”
Asked on why government had set up Zimbabwe Airways in the first place, considering the administration’s failure to capitalise Air Zimbabwe, Matiza said there was nothing wrong with having a second national airline.
“There is nothing wrong with having two national airlines; it (Zimbabwe Airways) was set-up for strategic business but our main purpose right now is to have Air Zimbabwe in the sky.”
Wow…
(Tip of the hat to @MeenzMev)
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.