I’ve seen a headline in today’s Herald, Air Zimbabwe resumes flights.

I’m sceptical; I can’t imagine the structural changes that would be required to make Air Zimbabwe a viable business have taken place. But I’m also relieved. I recently flew from Victoria Falls to Harare via Zambezi Airlines, the Zambian carrier which had been roped in to fly Zimbabwe’s local routes whilst our national airline was out of commission.

The experience was a heart wrenching example of economic decline. The plane left on time, and got us to our destination – exactly what Air Zimbabwe has developed a reputation for not doing. But I was flying within my country. I was going from one of the country’s tourism hot spots to the country’s capital, crossing no international boundaries. But I did so in a plane from Zambia, with Zambian crew. We were served crisps from South Africa, ginger ale from China, and soda water from Malaysia.

Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector is struggling enough to recover from the economic decline of the previous decade. Can’t we at least have our national airline plying our national routes – and serving drinks and snacks made right here in Zimbabwe?

This entry was posted on July 11th, 2011 at 11:35 am by Amanda Atwood and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.