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An Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737 jet

Oswell Moyo and Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Reporters
SCORES of passengers were once again delayed for hours after Air Zimbabwe’s passenger plane yesterday failed to take off from Harare to Bulawayo.Passengers waited for the plane at Bulawayo’s Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport until a majority ended up cancelling the flight.

The plane was supposed to land in Bulawayo at 7:30AM and take off for Harare at 8:15 but this did not happen as it is alleged that it had problems with its landing gear.

Another plane was eventually sent from Harare and arrived in Bulawayo after 10AM.

Air Zimbabwe’s southern marketing manager Christopher Kwenda said he could not comment on the matter as he was on leave.

“I’m on leave, you can contact the public relations manager Shingi Dhliwayo,” said Kwenda.

Dhliwayo said she was also on leave and was not in a position to comment.

“I’m on leave and I’m not the right person to comment at the moment. You can send your questions to our email then someone will respond” said Dhliwayo.

By the time of going to Press, the airline had not responded.

Disgruntled passengers who spoke to The Chronicle said the delay had affected their businesses.

“I was supposed to attend a meeting at 10AM. Right now I can’t proceed because it’ll be useless. Air Zimbabwe must put its house in order because it risks losing its loyal clients to other airlines,” said a passenger who cannot be named for professional reasons.

He said the struggling parastatal ended up organising another plane but it was already  late.

“They later told us that they were arranging for an M60 Passenger plane which is very slow as it can take an hour to Harare while the Boeing 737 that failed to show up can cover the trip in 35 minutes,” said another passenger.

The angry passengers said Air Zimbabwe should have informed them on time about  the delay.

“Air Zimbabwe is doing us a disservice. How can they fail to detect likelihoods of such occurrences? They told us after some hours that they’ve a technical fault.”

Two months ago, the same plane developed a mechanical fault minutes after takeoff from Harare causing a mid-air scare for passengers who were on board.

Air Zimbabwe is facing many challenges some of them are a result of mismanagement and corruption which saw the company losing more than $11 million in an insurance scam which resulted in its employees being dismissed while others were arrested.

Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Obert Mpofu has said the government was finalising modalities to open up the country’s airspace to other airlines.