Air Zim Asks CBZ, ZABG to Replace Fleet

[blindworm2003]

http://allafrica.com/stories/200710260698.html

here is the copy and paste version

AIR Zimbabwe which has been in a financial crisis for the past eight years has approached the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) and Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG) for funds to replace its ageing fleet.
Air Zimbabwe board chairman, Mike Bimha, told a parliamentary committee on Transport and Communication this week the company has been having difficulties finding financial partners to renew its fleets.


He said foreign funders have also not been forthcoming. Bimha said the new plan was now to work with CBZ and ZABG.
"We (Air Zimbabwe) are in talks with CBZ and ZABG over a possible funding," said Bimha. "We have had a number of meetings and are confident something will come up. There are other financial institutions which we have lined up but I cannot say anything for now," Bimha said.
Bimha said the national airline need about US$100 million and $500 billion from shareholders to revive its operations.
Air Zimbabwe chief executive, Peter Chikumba, said off-shore banks were not interested in funding the project because of the airline's poor creditworthiness. He however said plans were underway to enter into strategic partnerships with airlines in Africa and Europe to improve operations.
"We have had no less than four meetings with Reserve Bank governor over the airline's critical foreign currency requirements. At the moment we are not in a position to say if anything has materialised," he said.
Meanwhile the Air Zimbabwe board failed to explain what had happened to former acting Air Zimbabwe chief executive, Captain Oscar Madombwe.
Last month businessdigest revealed that Madombwe had been pushed out after he presented a negative technical report discouraging government and Air Zimbabwe from buying planes from Russia.
Bimha said Madombwe was on leave, but his fate would be decided "soon".
Committee members were not convinced by Bimha's explanations and announced that the committee had set up a four-member commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding Madombwe's fate as they felt something was amiss.
Committee chairman Leo Mugabe said: "We have appointed a four-member commission of enquiry. In fact the committee is not happy with the whole issue of human resources at Air Zimbabwe.
"We will need to engage the former chairman of your human resources committee, Luxon Zembe, to help us," Mugabe said.
Bimha said after having been acting CEO for a period, Madombwe was asked to revert to his previous posting at the airline's subsidiary National Handling Services as managing director. Bimha said Madombwe had refused the offer because he felt the new position would not offer him new challenges.


Captain Madombwe was one of the three short-listed candidates for the Air Zimbabwe CEO. The others were Chikumba and Nkosinathi Sibanda.
Bimha said both candidates were all capable of getting the job but Chikumba got the job because of his international exposure because he had worked for Air Namibia and the International Air Transport Association.
"The minister approved Chikumba and we asked Madombwe if he wanted to go back to his previous post as managing director of National Handling Services but he said having been there before, and having been to the top of the airline, the position offered him offered no challenges."

[Nickerbal]

I wonder if Zim has a printing press that's big enough to print the money to buy an aircraft and if so I wonder if the value of the paper in tonnage won't actually be worth more than the Zim$ value.

I think it better that the Zim Gov start a barter trade department!

[sidestick driver]

Any chance, Govan Mbeki will offer a few of the B737's and 250 pilots from a mainline carrier, just south of the border, to help another brother?:}

[chusan01]

Capt Bob and his team of crooks at Zanu-PF are working on the new version of the 'Flying Scotchcart'.

[Warbirds]

Who is this Captain Bob?

[kotakota]

I think Capt Bob is that dude who gave up on trying to get on the same list as Gandhi , Mother Teresa , Nelson Mandela etc and decided to become the final name on the 'other ' list that goes Attila , Hitler , Stalin , Pol Pot and .....
Even Saddam will not kill as many of his own people if Bob is allowed to get away with it. Can someone please find some oil there asap ?

[Jamex]

"Who is this Captain Bob?"

You're joking of course? Character named Robert Mugabe (Bob) who makes Idi Amin look like a sunday school teacher. Tosses the legal owners of farms off their own property to garner support from so-called "war veterans", many of them way to young to ever have been in the Rhodesian bush war! Has his thugs beat-up the leader of the official opposition party, during one of this unfortunates numerous arrests on stupid, childish, made-up charges and then sits on prime-time television in SA telling us how Zim has an agricultural industry second to none while the majority of Zim's people is streaming into SA looking for food! Thats Captain Bob.

[lowbypass]

i admire this airline, classic die hard
i think most limping airlines should go to air zim get secrets of surviving
i always say to my flying colleagues, if air zim still flies then...:oh:..will survive

[MrBernoulli]

Air Zimbabwe? 4**kwits who couldn't organise a piss-up in a shebeen.

[fly nice]

Jamex, I think that Warbirds was referring to the rhettoric that Captain Bob blurted out about the former British PM. Subtle humour:D

[Coleman Myers]

because the Chinese have given them more MA-60's ...phew, the London route is saved !!!.

[malikrehman]

Air Zimbabwe (http://www.airzimbabwe-uk.com) is back from strike and still its the safest airline to travel. yes there are some financial problems but airline management should overcome these problems.

[Capetonian]

Air Zimbabwe has a good safety record, with zero fatal events (as far as I know). That does not make them "the safest airline to travel" nor even a safe one, as firstly they have operated very few flights compared to others, so the past record is not a valid comparison, it's a statistic. Given the extremely difficult operating conditions they have, I would have serious doubts about the the maintenance standards of the aircraft.

That is not really what would stop me flying on them though. Until Evil Bob and Vile Grace are well and truly out of the way, and a less malignant regime is installed, I would not wish to support the current regime in any way. Travelling to Zimbabwe, at least on holiday, or on its airline, is doing so.

The EU should be ashamed of itself for allowing the airline to operate into its airspace, and the Vatican should be even more ashamed of inviting Bob to attend an event recently. I'm told he flew on a commandeered Air Zimbabwe aircraft into an Italian airport, although he is banned from the EU.

[flapsjml]

From IOL

The world aviation control body says it has suspended Zimbabwe's embattled, debt-ridden national airline from international financial and flight booking services.

In a statement Sunday, the International Air Transport Association told travel agents to “immediately stop all ticketing and refund transactions” for Air Zimbabwe.

The airline still can fly using only its own facilities, but will suffer a sharp drop in bookings by passengers who are not Zimbabwean nationals.

Air Zimbabwe, already crippled by two pilots strikes in the past six months, owed IATA $280,000 in unpaid worldwide billing and ticketing fees.

Air Zimbabwe said Sunday it has “already engaged IATA to negotiate a payment plan.” - Sapa-AP