That Air Zimbabwe has new use for the Boeing. It will be claimed elsewhere that Uganda Airlines Corporation is employing the aircraft to ferry military supplies to the Congo. The Ugandan line will be left only with a single chartered B-737-53A.
While attempting to persuade officials at Harare that business should come before politics, the Ugandan company requests a six-month extension for the B-737-2N0 it has been chartering. When the Ugandan government learns of the airline’s entreaties, it orders Managing Director Else to break off negotiations with Air Zimbabwe and find an alternative source for aircraft.
On September 22, dozens of company passengers are stranded in Hwange Airport when their B-767-3N0 is suddenly rescheduled to fly to Mauritius to pick up Zimbabwe’s president, who is attending a summit conference.
It is reported on November 11 that Uganda Airlines Corporation will be privatized in four days. The next day, the airline’s public relations director, Hadija Nakitende, informs the press that it will no longer pursue business opportunities with Air Zimbabwe, having turned to Air Djibouti, S. A. and achieved an agreement for an Entebbe-Dubai service beginning early in 1999.
With the return of the B-737-2N0 on November 15, all business dealings between the two companies are severed.
Passenger boardings drop 8.9% to 557,000, while cargo traffic climbs 7.4% to 41.79 million FTKs.
Airline employment is reduced 23.5% in 1999 to 1,400. During the first week of January, airline executives throughout the country are ordered by the government’s Board of Airline Representatives to complete all transactions with the public in local currency only and to halt the use of U. S. dollars. Concern has grown that the strong foreign currency has so increased the cost of tickets that ordinary citizens are unable to afford them.
The nation is in turmoil throughout the year and consequently, en-planements on the national carrier plunge, dropping 20.8% to 460,000. Freight traffic also descends, falling by 16.1% to 35.06 million FTKs. Partial fiscal results show revenues of $82.66 million, a $12.73-million operating profit, and a net loss of $25.05 million.
Airline employment stands at 1,434 at the beginning of 2000, a decline of 17.7% since the previous year.
Discussions with China Southern Airways Company, Ltd., begun in December, for the lease of a Boeing 777 are shelved in the spring as the country continues its plunge into economic crisis and political unrest in the period of runup to the June national elections.
Chronic fuel shortages force the withdrawal of a B-737 and BAe 146 while associated higher operating costs, to say nothing of political violence, force curtailment of regional flights from Harare to Cape Town and Durban in late April and early May.
A drop in load factor causes an additional suspension of all extra regional frequencies on May 17 (including those to Johannesburg), as well as a daily roundtrip between Harare and Victoria Falls.
In early June, the Transport Ministry, reacting to charges of alleged mismanagement and irregular procurement practices, begins an investigation of Managing Director Tich Garabga and his company colleagues.
On August 31, the special investigation committee reports that the carrier is technically insolvent and warns that the national airline risks having its planes impounded overseas by creditors who are owed more than $4 million.
Claiming that the airline’s feasibility study is incomplete, the Transport Ministry, on September 15, shelves the airline’s plan to inaugurate a weekly B-767 route in November from Victoria Falls to London (LGW).
When an $8-million debt to Air BP, a branch of British Petroleum specializing in aviation fuel, falls due during the last week of September, Air Zimbabwe is unable to pay. It is also unable to pay its navigation fee bill at London (LGW).
During October, arrangements are concluded between the company and LAC (Lignes Aeriennes Congalaises, S. A.) under which it would begin to service internal Democratic Republic of the Congo routes for the planeless Congolese airline.
The new arrangement on behalf of LAC begins on November 21 as wet-leased Air Zimbabwe aircraft operate roundtrip from Harare to Lumbumbashi, Mbujimayhi, and Kinshasa. The pact between the two companies is further extended on December 7 when Air Zimbabwe takes over the moribund international LAC frequencies to Paris and Brussels.
World History
