ZIMBABWE’S GOVERNMENT PLEDGES TO PAY OUTSTANDING AIRLINE REMITTANCES
(Posted 05th November 2018)
Information was received from a regular source in Harare that the new government of President Mnangagwa will set aside at least 4 million US Dollars per month for airlines, to repatriate their ticket sales revenues to their respective home offices.
Zimbabwe, under former ruler Mugabe, had literally ran out of cash and remittances for airlines, among many other international obligations, were stopped for lack of hard currency.
The new government, in an effort to boost the economy and in particular tourism, is now reversing those decisions and will begin to gradually let airlines remit their sales proceeds.
Several airlines had halted ticket sales in Zimbabwe unless payments were made with international credit cards and some airlines had threatened to halt flights unless they could get their money back first.
Low fare carrier Fastjet, which has reportedly 2.7 million US Dollars stuck in Zimbabwe for tickets sold from Harare to Johannesburg, Dar es Salaam and other regional destinations, will, when the funds are released, be substantially better off in its cash position, which has been a source of concern and even prompted other, less well informed media organisations, to speculate that the airline may have to close down.
