Story by Tichaona Kurewa
Government says it is satisfied with efforts being made by the Airports Company of Zimbabwe (ACZ) to attract more airlines into the country.
This emerged on the sidelines of the Airport Company of Zimbabwe strategic workshop in Victoria Falls.
“As we sit here today and deliberate on the Annual Plan for ACZ, we are happy to note the growing number of airlines that now patronize our airports. This should spur us to increase our efforts in modernizing our airport infrastructure together with the attendant processes and systems, so as to better serve this growing client base.
“In doing so, we must also be vigilant and live to the continuous evolution of standards of the systems and processes at airports and strive to attain the highest standards in the world, today and in the future,” noted the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development Acting Permanent Secretary, Dr. Loveness Masuka-Dumwa.
Government also revealed achievements of the country’s Open Skies Policy.
“Zimbabwe negotiated ten Bilateral Air Services Agreements; six YD compliant BASAs with African countries, three with European countries and one with an Asian country. This feat indicates that the Ministry and its Aviation State Enterprises and Parastatals are doing their part to transform our vision into reality,” she added.
ACZ highlighted that the ongoing airport development programmes across the country will also attract more airlines to Zimbabwe.
“If we build good airport infrastructure in areas such as Mutare, Manicaland Province, it will link more even with the development and will link Mozambique with Zimbabwe in a much faster and efficient way. This will encourage the business community not to take longer in travelling by road. We will continue to develop airport infrastructure to attract more airlines into Zimbabwe,” Airports Company Zimbabwe board chairperson, Mr. Devnanda Popatlal said.
Currently, 15 international and two domestic airlines are operating in Zimbabwe.
