Mugabe's son-in-law 'turns' around Air Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's  national airline Air Zimbabwe is eying a return on the Harare-London lucrative route by May as it targeting to increase revenue to $47 million from $36 million.

Chief executive Ripton Muzenda on Monday told a parliamentary committee  that it posted $15 million  losses in 2016 up from $26 million in 2015.

"We intend to change the way we are operating and hope to launch long haul flights which will be key in driving revenue…there is so much demand for London..we need to sort out our debt obligations and address regulatory compliance issues and also revamp our aircraft so that we are competitive," the son of the late vice president Simon Muzenda told legislators.

Government which is the shareholder in Air Zimbabwe, has been scouting for a technical partner to help turn around the struggling company whose $330 million debt could be taken over by the state.

In 2011, Air Zimbabwe's Boeing 737-500 was impounded in South Africa after failing to settle a $500,000 debt owed to Bid Air Services for handling services.

Its largest aircraft, a Boeing 767-200 was seized by American General Supplies in London over a of $1,2 million debt in the same year.

The plane was later released after the airline paid the debt, but Air Zimbabwe stopped flying to London, one of its most lucrative routes, since then.

In the same year a French court granted the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) a ruling to impound Air Zimbabwe's airplanes to recover debts.

Last year, President Robert Mugabe's son-in-law Simba Chikore was appointed  as Chief Operating Officer.

Chikore's father-in-law, Mugabe who turns 93 in a  few hours, frequently uses Air Zimbabwe for official and personal foreign trips.