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Air Zimbabwe could lost nearly US$1 million …

Posted under Airline News on April 21, 2010 by webmaster | 172 views

AIR ZIMBABWE could have lost nearly US$1 million over the past five days following the temporary freeze on air transportation over much of European airspace.

About 400 people who wanted to fly to Zimbabwe from London last week were stranded in Britain, while an equal number seeking to travel from Harare to London were stuck in Harare. A cloud of ash and dust that followed the eruption of Mt Eyjafjoell in Iceland last week has covered Northern European skies causing blanket closure of airspace in affected countries. Air Zimbabwe has cancelled three London flights since last Thursday.

With a return ticket to London costing US$1 169, Air Zimbabwe has already lost around US$960 000 from the 800 stranded passengers. The situation could prevail for a little while longer though some countries, such as Scotland, have reopened their airspace. Apart from the monetary loss, the biggest concern will be the fate of the 400 or so passengers stuck in London.

Air Zimbabwe chief executive Dr Peter Chikumba yesterday told The Herald they had not received any communication from Europe regarding improvement of the situation. "People are still on the ground and we have not received any formal communication on the weather conditions from Europe. "The situation has forced us to cancel three flights to London and that has affected 800 passengers from either side," Dr Chikumba said.

He said the airline was not catering for affected travellers since the delays were a result of a natural disaster. "It is not Air Zimbabwe which has inco-nvenienced travellers but we are, however, keeping our clients informed on travel arrangements," he said.

Efforts to get comment from Zimbabwe’s Embassy in Britain on what assistance they were providing to citizens trapped in London were fruitless at the time of writing. A Government delegation that was supposed to travel to Brussels, Belgium, for the resumption of Zimbabwe-European Union dialogue failed to travel.

The team, led by Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Elton Mangoma, returned to Zimbabwe last night after failing to get a connecting flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Brussels.

"This means that we have to set a new date for the re-engagement dialogue," said Regional Integration and International Co-operation Minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, who — along with Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa — is part of the delegation.

Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector is also understood to have been hard hit by the grounding of air travel. Horticulture and floriculture farmers in particular could be losing vast sums of money daily as their perishable produce is not reaching European markets. The International Air Transport Associa-tion has urged European governments to rethink the blanket closure of airspace.

"We are far enough into this crisis to express our dissatisfaction on how governments have managed it — with no risk assessment, no consultation, no co-ordination, and no leadership. "This crisis is costing airlines at least US$200 million a day in lost revenues and the European economy is suffering billions of dollars in lost business," said IATA director-general and CEO Mr Giovanni Bisignani.