AIR Zimbabwe has been suspended from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) after failing to renew its registration with the organisation’s operational safety audit.

“Please be advised that tomorrow, June 14, 2012, Air Zimbabwe will be removed from the IOSA registry as the operator failed to renew its registration before the expiry date,” Catalin Cotrut, IATA’s director for Global Audit Programs, wrote in a letter to the airline.

IATA’s operational safety audit (IOSA) is the benchmark for global safety management in airlines and all IATA members are registered and must remain registered in order to maintain IATA membership.

Sources at the company said IATA personnel failed to conduct the registration exercise when they visited the airline recently because there was no personnel and operational aircraft to audit.

“Air Zimbabwe is officially out of IATA. The airline was dead when IATA people visited us because there was no one to audit,” an airline official told Radio VOP.

Air Zimbabwe suspended regional and international flights in a bid to prevent the seizure of aircraft after two planes were briefly held in London and Johannesburg.

The company is saddled with massive debts and various other operational problems which saw it grounding all aircraft in January.

Limited domestic services have since been resumed but officials are pushing for the government to take over its US$140 million debt as well as help acquire more modern aircraft.

The government has however demanded that the airline reduce its bloated workforce as part of measures aimed at returning it to operational viability.