Air Zim Resumes Direct Harare-London Flights On Rented Plane After 14yr Pause

Zimbabwe’s national carrier, Air Zimbabwe, has resumed direct flights between Harare and London after a 14 year hiatus.

This comes after the national carrier secured a leased Airbus A330-300 from a Spanish company Plus Ultra Lineas Aereas under an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) wet lease.

The plane has a combined 302 seats, with a configuration of 30 business class and 272 economy seats. Under this arrangement, Plus Ultra will provide the aircraft, flight crew, maintenance and insurance whilst Air Zimbabwe will manage ticket sales, passenger services and the overall commercial operation of the route.

A wet lease, often called an ACMI lease, is an agreement where one provides an aircraft to another along with the pilots, cabin crew, maintenance and liability insurance. The lessee assumes commercial control of the flights but isn’t responsible for regulatory, operational and maintenance duties.

In his address at the official lauch of the project, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister, Felix Mhona described it as “historic.”

“We welcome the return of Air Zimbabwe with pomp and funfare, after a 16yr hiatus. Occassions of this nature provide us with a wonderful opportunity to brush shoulders with colleagues from every walk of the aviation, tourism and hospitality sectors,” said Mhona.

He added that Air Zimbabwe was now one of the investee companies of the Mutapa Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth investment fund, which was designated as the immediate shareholder of the airline.

“The fruitfulness of all our efforts is as a result of the enabling working environment inspired by our iconic leader, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, CDE ED Mnangagwa, whose strategic leadership since 2017 has catapulted our national fortunes and growth to levels never witnesses before,” he added.

However, sceptics have poured scorn on the level of celebrations and gloating by the State, arguing that renting an air plane isn’t something worth a national celebration. There have been mixed reviews to this on social media, with some celebrating these “small victories” whilst others are of the opinion that for a national carrier that inherited 13-14 planes from Rhodesia at independence in 1980, celebrating the leasing of one plane should be considered a national embarrassment.

In 1980 as the country transitioned from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, the national airline inherited a fully functional batch of planes numbering 13-14. So to move from that to zero and then leasing one plane from a European company 46yrs after independence shouldn’t be something that we celebrate as a nation. Others mocked the fact that the leased airline still bears the Spanish flag instead of Zimbabwe’s own.