Following on from our initial report, Zimbabwean private start up Sol Air (ZS)
has now revealed its plans for upcoming routes it intends to serve
using a fleet of Bombardier CRJ-900s.
Amongst the cities to be served from its base at Harare
International Airport are: Bulawayo, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Tete
(Mozambique), Lusaka and Victoria Falls. It also plans to serve
Johannesburg - Victoria Falls and Johannesburg - Bulawayo, two routes
that are at present serviced exclusively by South African carriers.
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| A familiar sight at Harare - empty slots. (William Whaley) |
No
further news on how a resurrected Air Zimbabwe has been performing on
domestic routes has been made available.
Meanwhile, at a recent conference
of the African
Travel Association (ATA) held in Victoria Falls, Shingi Munyeza, chief
executive officer of hotel and leisure group,
African Sun Limited (ASL) told international delegates that there was
nothing wrong with African governments regulating domestic air services
in order to protect troubled national airlines.
"You need to let in (foreign) airlines but ensure you don't destroy the local airline," Munyeza told the ATA congress. "
African governments have been burnt before where they have opened the skies," said Munyeza.
Once
again, this adds to the notion of total discord between official Zimbabwean
Government policy and private industry with regards to the serious development of local
aviation, as just recently, Minister of Tourism and Hospitality
Walter Mzembi stated:
"We are over-protecting Air Zimbabwe. We all know that government is a signatory to a declaration that promotes an open sky policy. What I wonder is why we have not been able to motivate any new airlines into our airspace?"
Politicking aside, the answer, however, is simple.
As
long as Zimbabwe's government is willing to live with the prospect of
subsidizing an inefficient millstone of the Air Zimbabwe sort whilst strangling any potential private carriers under the guise of the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ), then it
will only have itself to blame when it finds its tourism and aviation infrastructure
both undeveloped and underexploited, because after all, tourism thrives on reputation, and what good to a country is an airline reputed only for late arrivals and shoddy service?