Air Zimbabwe cancels London flights

Air Zimbabwe has suspended its London flights fearing the possible seizure of its planes by a European navigation agency over a 2.8 million U.S. dollar debt, The Herald reported on Saturday.

London flights are the airline's cash cow. The debt accrued over the past four years and the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation won a court order empowering it to impound the national airline's plane to recover the money.

The airline's board chairman Mike Bimha confirmed the cancellation of flights, saying the airline's lawyers and those of the agency were in talks to find an amicable solution. The development has inconvenienced passengers, especially those who intend to catch connecting flights in London.

The airline's spokesperson David Mwenga said the flight to London was canceled because of some operational problems.

Sources said the airline was failing to collect money from customers because it could not retrieve records since its computer system is down. Mwenga said a major virus had affected the hardware of the airline's computer system last week, paralyzing operations.

Air Zimbabwe constantly sends its technical staff to Dubai for training with one of their suppliers. Air Zimbabwe's financial problems come at a time when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has stopped funding parastatals, saying they should instead go to their parent ministries.

Source: Xinhua