Even as Air Zimbabwe has announced plans to add a second weekly flight between Harare and China, a parliamentary committee is launching an investigation into the operations of the long-troubled state airline.
Chairman Leo Mugabe of the committee on transport and communications said in an interview that his panel wants to ‘’understand’’ what is going on at Air Zimbabwe. Mugabe, nephew of President Robert Mugabe, declined to elaborate.
But another committee source said the investigation was prompted by the cancellation of flights to London recently because of the airline's concern that its craft were at risk of being seized for nonpayment of debts. The source said Air Zimbabwe management has been given two weeks to prepare and present a report to the committee.
Air Zimbabwe regional manager Chris Kwenda was quoted in the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Monday as saying the airline would add a second weekly flight to China early next year, to the industrial and technological hub of Guangzhou.
Consultant Donald Schenk, president of New York-based Airline Capital Associates, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Air Zimbabwe’s difficulties are likely to continue as long as the country itself remains in crisis.