Airzim clears air on ‘new plane’

By Leonard Ncube

Air Zimbabwe (Airzim) expects to have one of its Boeing 737-200s back in the skies soon to supplement the 767-200ER now servicing domestic and regional routes.

It services the Harare-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls route daily in the morning and then flies to Johannesburg four times a week and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania twice a week.

Airzim now expects to improve its service with the re-introduction of the 737-200 with a capacity of 105 passengers, the airliner’s public relations and corporate communications officer, Ms Firstme Vitori, said yesterday.

“The B737-200 is part of our fleet and currently undergoing a scheduled maintenance check classified as D check,” she said. “It’s not a new aircraft as stated before, but part of our fleet that had been undergoing a recheck.”

Ms Vitori said the re-introduction of the aircraft will result in increased frequencies and more flexible schedules, especially for day trippers on domestic routes between Harare and Victoria Falls.

She said the plane still parked at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport was waiting for completion of the Know Your Customer approval process by the manufacturer before it could start flying.

Speaking at a tourism all-stakeholders conference attended by a cross-section of the industry known as Team Tourism held in the Hwange National Park on Saturday, Air Zimbabwe head of marketing Mr Tafadzwa Zaza said the B737-200 was expected back in service within three weeks. The Herald