Air Zimbabwe is in a bind - President Robert Mugabe wants to travel to New York - but the state-owned airline's pilots have downed tools amid threats to discipline or sack them.Peter Chikumba, the chief executive of the trouble airline, has refused to deny or confirm reports that all 40 pilots had been sacked for striking.
A disciplinary hearing this week failed to take place after pilots simply ignored the airline’s summons. The pilots have been on strike for a week demanding immediate payment of allowances and outstanding salaries. The airline says it can not afford the demands.
Unconfirmed reports that Mugabe intends to fly to New York today
(Friday) ahead of Tuesday’s UN summit have placed Air Zimbabwe between a rock and a hard place.
Mugabe is the airline’s best customer – often chartering a whole aircraft for his family and aides. Chikumba once publicly claimed Mugabe’s money was essential for the survival of the loss-making airline.
The chief executive denied reports that the president had often commandeered aircraft to the detriment of paying passengers saying “I wish we could have more customers like Mugabe.”
Yesterday the airline remained mum on how it would transport its favourite flyer. Insiders suggested the airline would charter a plane from an unnamed airline in SA.
Air Zimbabwe has already leased two planes from SA to help it meet some of its local and regional obligations. International flights to the UK and China remain grounded.
Mugabe, 86, this week had his pay increased from US$400 to US$1 750 a month, hardly enough to pay for a first class return ticket to the US.
Post published in: World News