Air Zimbabwe UK

Zimbabwe’s national airline, Air Zimbabwe (UM)  is the only direct flights to Zimbabwe from London- United Kingdom, Johannesburg – South Africa, Beijing-China, Lusaka- Zambia, Lilongwe- Malawi, Kuala Lumpur- Malaysia,  and operating domestic routes (Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls).

Historically, Air Zimbabwe is operating since 1967 with different name such as Air Rhodesia, then it renamed to Air Zimbabwe Rhodesia, finally in April when republic of Zimbabwe formed in 1980; it had given the name of Air Zimbabwe representing Zimbabwe national flag.

Air Zimbabwe is government own corporation, it has total 7 fleet, including 5 Boeing and 2 Xian, and 2 in order Airbus A340 serving domestic and international routes.

Air Zimbabwe has got many strategic business unit such as air Zimbabwe Passenger Company, cargo, technical, national handling service etc.

Air Zimbabwe has many talented and cable management staff, currently the Air Zimbabwe Chief Executive Officer, Dr Peter Chikumba is very experienced and intellectual personality, and Mr. Jonathan Kadzura is board chairman, another very educated and experienced person in Air Zimbabwe.

Air Zimbabwe operating many destinations domestic and international in many countries, such as United Kingdom, South Africa, China, Zambia, Malawi, and Malaysia. Its major routes where air Zimbabwe earning gigantic profit is London-Harare, is cash-cow for the organization.

Besides many internal issues, such as pilots strike, bad publicity, air Zimbabwe is one of safest airline in the world, its cabin crew service is very good, passenger’s feedback is always good, no doubt in every airline in the world there are pros and cons, but at the end of the day customers are happy and management is providing best services to their customers.

Air Zimbabwe is the only direct carrier from London Gatwick airport to Harare International Airport, Zimbabwe, and it operating twice a week, on Monday and Thursday, and returning from Harare International on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Air Zimbabwe is improving its fleets and cabin crew service day by day and achieving its mission and vision. We are always there for our valued customer.

David Mwenga, Air Zimbabwe’s General Manager for Europe / UK, said Air Zimbabwe is resuming domestic and international flights on Sunday, the 26th of September after resolving a pay dispute with pilots and cabin crew on Wednesday evening.

The state-owned carrier’s 60 pilots and cabin crew went on strike on September 8 pressing for the payment of their outstanding allowances.

The strike left hundreds of passengers stranded in Harare and London, while causing chaos on the airline’s domestic and regional routes.

The struggling airline – thought to have lost up of US$5 million during the strike — originally took a tough stance, and at one time appeared to fire the pilots.

But David Mwenga, Air Zimbabwe’s General Manager for Europe/UK, told Flighsmaster  on Wednesday night that the striking workers had agreed to return to work on Friday.

He said full details of the settlement with the pilots would be revealed later Thursday.

“What I can say for now is that we are resuming flights with our own staff on Friday. We are going ahead to engage our partners at the various airports where our planes fly to trying to see how we organise our flight programmes,” Mwenga said.

Mwenga said he expects the Harare-London route to be re-opened on Friday, with a Boeing 767 leaving the Zimbabwean capital in the morning and arriving in London later that day.

“Our passengers are advised to check with our offices in Harare and London.”

Air Zimbabwe flies two 767s between Harare-China and Harare-London. The airline also has three 737s which service regional routes including flights to South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Domestic routes are mainly plied by three Chinese Xian MA 60 turboprops.

Air Zimbabwe is a perennial loss-maker weighed down by an ageing fleet, debt and the effects of a decade-long economic crisis in the Southern African country.

The carrier is currently embroiled in a legal dispute over its move last year to shed over 500 jobs in a bid to cut costs.

A government prospectus published last year showed Air Zimbabwe needed US$750 million to renew its fleet and install a hangar fire protection system. Under the plan, the government would give up a 60 percent stake in exchange for the cash injection.

Air Zimbabwe’s passenger numbers have declined by more than 30% since 2000. This coincided with a sharp drop in tourist arrivals as the country plunged into a political and economic crisis.