Air Zimbabwe to acquire aircraft for China flights

Air Zimbabwe, national carrier of the cash-strapped Zimbabwe, said on Sunday in Harare it was in the process of acquiring a long haul aircraft to fly Asian routes it plans to introduce shortly.

The Airline head of legal and corporate affairs Arthur Manase said funding for the aircraft was being finalized, and "the acquisition was expected soon."

"This will be a bigger and more modern aircraft in our fleet, and it would be dedicated mainly to the Asian routes," he said.

The aircraft would be the third long haul plane in Air Zimbabwe's fleet, and the first acquisition in decades by the cash-strapped country's national carrier.

Its only long haul aircraft, at the moment, are two 767-400s acquired in the 1980s, and operated mainly on the Harare-London route.

Manase said the acquisition of the aircraft was part of the implementation of a tourism agreement the Zimbabwean government signed with China recently, under which the latter granted Zimbabwe Approved Destination Status (ADS), giving a green light to Chinese nationals to visit the country.

Zimbabwe is one of a few countries in Africa to be granted the status by China, where about 12 million of its nationals visit abroad each year.

Already, tourists from China to Zimbabwe have started to grow, increasing by 40 percent in the first quarter of the year.

A Zimbabwean delegation, led by Zimbabwean tourism minister Francis Nhema was in China last week to work out details of the ADS deal, including possible routes for Air Zimbabwe.

Manase said Air Zimbabwe would fly to the Chinese capital, Beijing, and was also exploring possible stop-overs in either Singapore or Hong Kong.

A Chinese airline would also introduce direct flights to Zimbabwe shortly, under the agreement.

Source: Xinhua