Air Zimbabwe says to to take delivery of new aircraft by April

Air Zimbabwe will take delivery of new aircraft during the first quarter of this year enabling it to launch additional regional flights as well as a new intercontinental route, an official has said.

Air Zim chief executive officer Tafadzwa Zaza said this as he laid out the airline's ambitious plans for 2022.

He said the delivery of additional equipment will allow the airline to increase ad-hoc passenger and charter operations to domestic, regional, and intercontinental destinations.

"Key to our focus for the year ahead, barring any unforeseen disruptive new variants, is route expansion with a plan for one intercontinental and two regional destinations while frequencies on the current domestic and regional schedule will also be increased as we aim to improve your travel convenience," he said.

"Resumption of flights to Bulawayo from Johannesburg is also expected in the coming year. Tourists and traders to Dar es Salaam will also have the convenience to connect either Bulawayo/Harare/Dar es Salaam or Victoria Falls/Harare/Dar es Salaam return three times weekly."

Zaza said although 2021 was fraught with challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic; the airline had soldiered on and was looking to the year ahead with great anticipation.

"We managed to resume our full scheduled operations, albeit phased with minimum disruptions which success we can attribute to the goodwill from the vaccination programs which have boosted passenger confidence to fly again. It is this confidence boost that has given us wings to position for 2022," he said.

Air Zimbabwe exited judicial management last year as things started looking up for the once troubled airline following the acquisition of new planes and resumption of operations.

The airline had entered into administration in 2018 following a difficult decade that saw its planes grounded as the crisis deepened, with foreign airports threatening to impound its jetliners over landing fees.