By Derick Tsimba

There has been a growing interest by International air lines to fly into Zimbabwe, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) has revealed.

Speaking at the Aviation Stakeholders Breakfast Meeting in Harare today, CAAZ said three international airlines would soon be registered to fly into the country.

“We have three international airlines that have registered strong interest to fly into Zimbabwe. Once all processes are concluded they will be announced,” said the Authority.

Speaking at the same meeting, Air Zimbabwe Acting Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Makonese said Air Zimbabwe was soon going to resume European routes such as a direct route to the UK.

“What is required is a strong national airline. A strong national airline will facilitate travel and trade. When you look at those two as soon as they start booming, the benefits fall back to us the airline as there will be a lot of travel.

“Whilst there will be a lot of travel, this is when we say which areas come in. As a national airline, we are compelled as a national requirement to service certain destinations. I must admit we do not want to operate unprofitably, we want to operate profitably. We are looking at initiating operations into Europe. We made our submissions this year after we get approval of the third country operator, we are going to Europe,” he said.

The Harare Post has learnt that whilst Air Zimbabwe is opening up its air space to international airlines, it is also planning to re-introduce flights to operate in Europe in the last quarter of 2020.