The country’s flag carrier Air Zimbabwe continues with its resuscitation drive and the latest acquisition Embraer ERJ 145 50-seater plane is set to hit the skies this month, Zim Morning Post can reveal.
In an exclusive interview with Zim Morning Post this week, Air Zimbabwe corporate services manager Tafadzwa Mazonde said the company was at advanced stages to get the plane in the skies.
He said the plane has already been registered with the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) and will be operating under Registration ZWPQ covering local and regional routes.
“We were facing challenges in registering the plane but I can say we are now covered on that part and the plane will be operating under Reg number ZWPQ covering the Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Johannesburg and Tanzania,” said Mazonde.
Mazonde said the plane has been rebranded from Zim Airways and is currently undergoing maintenance since it had not been operating for a prolonged period.
He said the maintenance was being done to ensure quality service for Air Zimbabwe customers and stakeholders.
The national airline has so far trained eight pilots and eight attendants who will operate within international standards.
In April this year, Air Zimbabwe took delivery of the plane bought under the Zimbabwe Airways controversial arrangement.
The Embraer 145 arrived from the United States of America were it has been lying idle.
As reported by this publication the two planes were acquired by Zimbabwe Airways for the government but due to repudiatory breach of the original sale and purchase agreement by the government, delivery of the other two aircrafts was brought to a halt.
The seller Malaysian Airline Behard, accepted the buyer’s repudiation of the original purchase agreement on the original sale and purchase agreement and the original sale and purchase agreement was terminated on July 2017.