Air Zimbabwe now also demands payment in hard currency

Martin Rushmere
WITH PAYMENTS in hard currency now being demanded by three of the four foreign airlines still flying to Zimbabwe, the seriousness of the economic situation has been further underlined by the fact that the national domestic airline, Air Zimbabwe, is also insisting on foreign currency.
Officially there is complete silence from the airline but travel agents told FTW: "Secretly, the airline now says that first, business class and the standard economy class (open-ended return) fares have to be in convertible currencies. Special economy fares are not affected."
Air Zimbabwe has become the most expensive airline in Africa and possibly the world. An economy class return fare is US$500 to Johannesburg.
British Airways and SAA say they had no choice but to start charging in hard currency. "A regulation brought in a week ago forbidding anyone from charging beyond the
official exchange rate means that we would have gone out of business," BA manager for Zimbabwe, Peter Best, told FTW.
"The parallel rate, at which we have to pay for all imported items, is 300% higher than the official rate of US$1 to Z$55," said Best. "There was no other choice." SAA says exactly the same. The airline now has 14 flights a week to Harare and reports that it
is solidly booked. "At the moment business is good," said a spokesman.
Best is more sanguine. "There will obviously be a drop in business," he says, "but we are totally committed to staying here." Talk in the industry is that the three flights a week will be reduced to two soon.
Both airlines say they have about Z$1 billion blocked in Zimbabwe which they cannot send out because the country has run out of foreign exchange. At the official exchange rate that is equivalent to US$180 million, but is only US$1.5 million at the parallel rate.