Crippled Zim plane gathers dust in SA for 3 years

An Airbus A320 owned by Air Zimbabwe has been languishing in South Africa for nearly four years after being sent there for a major service - stranded because the airline cannot pay the bill.

Air Zimbabwe has been unable to meet the costs of the service, resulting in the plane gathering dust at SAA's workshops at OR Tambo International Airport.

Sources in the aviation industry said this week that Air Zimbabwe took the plane to SAA because it did not have technicians trained to service the Airbus. It is understood that SAA has yet to start work on the service, the standard fee for which is about $500,000 (R6-million).

Including new parts at $1.2-million, the total bill would be in the region of $1.7-million.

SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali this week said the Air Zimbabwe plane was with the South African carrier, but could not give more details.

"It would be inappropriate for us to comment on the affairs of any of our clients when there is no basis or justification to do so," Tlali said. "Doing so would amount to breach of trust."

Air Zimbabwe spokesman Tafadzwa Mazonde said an acute shortage of foreign currency had resulted in the airline's failure to get the aircraft serviced and returned.

"A few months ago Air Zimbabwe tried sending money to a spare-parts supplier who would then ship them to SAA.

"We tried wiring $1.2-million needed to procure parts in August last year but our proposal is still hanging with the bank. That's a lot of money and banks don't have it," he said.

The last time Air Zimbabwe procured spare parts, it did so on a hire-purchase basis with a US supplier. The flag carrier failed to pay, resulting in the aircraft's seizure at Gatwick airport in the UK in 2012.

Fearing the same could happen to more of its planes, Air Zimbabwe suspended flights to the UK.

Currently, Air Zimbabwe is crippled, with eight of its 10 planes out of service.

Transport Minister Joram Gumbo said the Airbus would be returned once it had been serviced. "There is no way we can get the plane back before it's serviced because it will be of no use," he said.

The Airbus 320, registration Z-WPM, was used by Air Jamaica from 1997 to September 2002 before it was sold to a US financial institution that leased it to Air Tanzania in 2008.

Air Zimbabwe acquired it three years later, and sent it to SAA for a scheduled service in 2014.

Air Zimbabwe has debts of more than $330-million, so the government has had to charter private planes for foreign travel.

Earlier this month, President Emmerson Mnangagwa chartered a plane from Comlux in Switzerland for $1.3-million.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa last week announced that about two dozen state-owned companies had been marked for privatisation. However, Air Zimbabwe was excluded from the privatisation plans, amid indications that a new airline, Zimbabwe Airways, is set to take to the skies.

AIR ZIMBABWE STATS

• $300-million: the amount of debt Air Zimbabwe is in

• 22 planes: Air Zimbabwe's fleet at independence in 1980

• South Africa and Tanzania: the two countries Air Zimbabwe flee to in the SADC region. It doesn't fly any routes beyond the region