RSS 2.0 FeedAugust 2011 - Vol 36, Takeoff Africa: Aviation and Travel Indaba
Air Zim will have to survive - Mzembi
Zimbabwe's tourism minister says the southern African nation will not shut down its bankrupt state airline but foreign partners are being sought to rescue it and manage its debt.
Minister Walter Mzembi says the government-owned Air Zimbabwe is the country's symbolic flag carrier and cannot be dismantled without bruising the nation's ego and damaging Zimbabwe's image worldwide.
The airline's collapse is blamed on mismanagement and three crippling pilot strikes in the past 10 months over unpaid salaries and allowances.
Mzembi wrote in an article in the state Herald newspaper Wednesday that the bloated airline has 184 employees for each of its eight aircraft, compared to a world average of 80 staff for each aircraft.
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