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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) has suspended Fly Africa’s operating licence due to the airline’s shareholding disputes and failure to meet statutory requirements.

Quoting sources close to the development, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported yesterday that the low-cost airline was forced to surrender its operating licence as a result of boardroom squabbles and shareholding disputes.

The airline, a partnership between the Karase family’s Fresh Air and Mike Bond of South Africa began operations last year.

Media reports say apart from the internal disputes, the airline has not been remitting passenger services charges to CAAZ.

Reports further say the airline aircraft were not based in Zimbabwe while the company did not have an accounting manager in violation of Statutory Instrument 140.2010.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo confirmed the development, adding that after surrendering the operating licence and failure to meet the regulatory requirements the airline’s operations had to be suspended.

“After surrendering the licence and failure to meet the regulatory requirements, the airline’s operations have been suspended,” he was quoted as saying.

Efforts to get a comment from Fly Africa’s board chairperson Professor Chakanyuka Karase were unsuccessful by the time of going to print yesterday as his mobile number was unreachable.

Media reports say there was drama at the Harare International Airport on Tuesday when passengers were asked to disembark from the plane.

Despite surrendering its licence, the airline had booked passengers, prompting CAAZ to intervene for the safety of the passengers and to enforce the law.

The airline was licensed by CAAZ in August 2014 and introduced its first aircraft in the same month to service the Victoria Falls-Johannesburg route flying three times a week on Sundays, Wednesday and Fridays.

In March this year, Fly Africa introduced its maiden flight linking Bulawayo and Johannesburg. The airline was also servicing the Harare-Johannesburg route.

Plans were also in the pipeline by the airline to launch regional routes from Harare to Lusaka (Zambia), Lubumbashi (the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the Victoria Falls-Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) route.