Zimbabwe's airports remain in a mess. The once beautiful Harare International Airport is looking scruffy and has a general air of disillusionment about it. The shops are tatty, the eating facilities are poor and the once heart of international travel in the country is bleeding.
The Harare domestic airport is a disgrace, take a look at this photograph taken right beside the passenger X ray machine.
What is there to be said about the state of the machinery, including the aircraft engines, If the plugs and electrical goods look like this!
A broken mazoe heater, the bare broken element hanging down and touching the metal of the heater, plus the electric kettle and the heater pushed into the wall with the bare wires ….. is alarming to say the least. The flamable plastic dish in front of the heater, presumably in a vain attempt to prevent the atmosphere from dying out, is empty of water and in itself is a potential fire hazard.
If this is the state of general repair at our airports, what is to be said of the state of the x ray machine ?
IMore importantly what is to said of the aircraft engines ?
Bulawayo’s domestic airport too has been a nightmare for many years now although residents were promised the new international airport within three years. Today the airport is still in an old hanger, boiling hot in summer, freezing cold in winter, the suitcases still being loaded in a most cumbersome manner, through the same x ray machine as the passengers.
No matter what one wears, the x ray machine alarm sounds off, a terrorist fanatic would have a field day at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport.
The new airport in Bulawayo is however looking interesting, certainly things are happening in this area. The glazing has been done, the roof has been painted a charming shade of blue, although looking through the glass, the inside of the building appears totally empty.
It is indeed a vast terminal building and will be perfect for all of the three or four flights a day which leave Bulawayo !!
The scaffolding company contracted to undertake the scaffolding at the airport , must have made an absolute fortune, as the scaffolding has been standing there doing nothing for years !
Post published in: News