British Airways completes Zimbabwe pull-out

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By Lebo Nkatazo

BRITISH Airways on Sunday, October 28, packed in on its London-Harare route, citing viability problems.

The last BA flight 152, a Boeing 777 carrying 200 passengers, made its take-off shortly after 9am without ceremony.

One report said the captain of the incoming flight had told passengers how sad he felt not to be able to fly in and out of Harare anymore.

BA insists that the decision to pull out of Zimbabwe is purely for economic reasons.

The company said it had been making a “considerable loss”, and servicing the route was no longer justifiable. Acute fuel shortages in Zimbabwe had forced the airline to bring in fuel by road and refuel its planes in neighbouring countries, the company said.

BA’s pull-out has magnified Zimbabwe’s dramatic economic decline with official inflation now estimated to be over 8000%. Declining exports and the closure of international credit lines for the country has squeezed foreign currency out of the country’s economy.

In 1999 Harare airport was crowded with the emblems of 18 foreign airlines with Lufthansa, Air France and TAP Portugal also linking directly to Europe. BA was flying four consistently packed Boeing 747 jumbo jets to Harare four times a week.

Since 2001, the Australian, French, Dutch and Portuguese airlines have withdrawn from Zimbabwe, leaving the state carrier Air Zimbabwe, South African Airways and two other African airlines flying to Harare.

Steve Harrison, BA’s commercial manager for southern Africa, said spiralling operating costs and falling passenger numbers left the airline with "considerable" losses on the Harare route.

"The economic situation in Zimbabwe has contributed to a decline in market demand. The withdrawal of Harare flights is for commercial reasons as it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify our operation," Harrison said in the statement.

“BA’s withdrawal is a major blow to what’s left of tourism,” said a tour company operator requesting anonymity. “Air Zimbabwe [the state-owned airline] cannot make up the numbers that BA was carrying. That means people will have to fly here via South Africa or one of the other neighbouring countries, and having to make multiple stopovers is a severe deterrent to travellers.”

Air Zimbabwe has already announced that it will add two more weekly flights to London to fill the gap left by British Airways.

“The two additional flights will bring the airline's weekly frequencies on the route to five,” the airline said in a statement.
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