NO FLIGHTS TODAY BY AIR ZIMBABWE AS PASSENGERS DESERT THE AIRLINE AND MOVE TO MORE RELIABLE OPERATORS
(Posted 02nd December 2019)
Air Zimbabwe yesterday sent out a notice that the airline will not operate any flights today, Monday 02nd December 2019 nor for most of tomorrow, Tuesday 03rd of December 2019.
Citing operational limitations beyond their control did the airline’s statement not go down well with passengers who let their anger boil over on social media.
With viable alternatives now available, Fastjet Zimbabwe will launch their 11 weekly flights from Bulawayo to Johannesburg on Thursday 05th of December, and also serves Johannesburg several times a day out of Harare – besides their flights from Harare to Victoria Falls – is the threat to Air Zimbabwe greater than ever before that passengers, disappointed by their performance or rather periodic nonperformance, will simply migrate to other carriers.
Sources close to Fastjet in Harare confirmed to ATCNews that they saw a surge in bookings for today and tomorrow but that the airline was otherwise concentrating on the launch of the Bulawayo to Johannesburg route later this week.
Meanwhile are statements coming out of South Africa in regard to the future of South African Airways also not encouraging, as sections of government now appear to take a much harder line following the wrecking ball action of South Africa’s aviation unions which pushed South African Airways to the brink of financial collapse. Having injected more than 3 billion US Dollars into the airline over the past two decades – and given the sluggish performance of the South African economy overall which impacts on tax income for the government – is it now anyone’s guess for how much longer SAA can survive without radical reforms and massive cost cuts, to both of which the unions have already said no.
