HARARE – President Robert Mugabe this week grabbed an Air Zimbabwe plane to fly him to China, leaving management at the national airline scurrying around for alternative means to take passengers on a scheduled flight to Singapore.
 It was not immediately clear whether Mugabe’s rushed trip on Wednesday to China was for personal or state business with other sources in the government suggesting the 84-year old leader went to Beijing for routine medical check up.
 We were told by management to fix the Boeing 767 on Wednesday morning for the VIPs. Usually the fixing involves shutting down the business class and removing seats and replacing them with more comfortable seats and a bed, said a source at Air Zimbabwe.
 The plane which was supposed to go Singapore that evening was then diverted to take the President to China on Wednesday afternoon, added the source, who spoke on condition he was not named.
 Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba was not immediately available for comment on the matter.
 Air Zimbabwe chief executive officer Peter Chikumba confirmed that the airline was this week requested to provide an aircraft to fly VIPs to China. But he sought to downplay the matter saying it was normal for VIPs to make such requests.
 Chikumba said: This is not a new thing. It is the norm that when VIPs are traveling they make a request and in this case their request was granted and they are paying for that. We have made alternative arrangements for passengers who were affected.
 This is not the first time that Mugabe has diverted Air Zimbabwe planes from scheduled flights. He often does this whenever he wishes to fly outside the country and sometimes even when he is travelling on personal business – and in the process leaving passengers stranded.
 Zimbabwe’s national carrier has since the country’s economic crisis started in 2000 lost its position as one of the best airlines in Africa due to mismanagement and interference by the government.
 Starved of cash for re-equipment, Air Zimbabwe uses mostly obsolete technology and equipment while nearly all its planes are between 16 and 20 years old. – ZimOnline
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