HARARE Dec 13 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s state-owned
airline was scrambling for cash on Tuesday to secure the release
of a plane seized in London by a U.S firm over a $1.2 million
debt, a senior airline official told state media.
Air Zimbabwe acting chief executive Innocent Mavhunga
confirmed that his firm’s Boeing 767-200 had been impounded on
landing at Gatwick Airport on Monday after American General
Supplies got a court order for money owed for aircraft spares.
“The plane has been attached by one of our spares suppliers
over an outstanding debt which we are negotiating to settle,” he
was reported as saying.
Mavhunga said government’s treasury department had told the
airline it could not help with the required cash. Another
official said Air Zimbabwe was still scrambling to get back the
aircraft in time for a scheduled return flight to Harare on
Tuesday evening.
“The management and the shareholder (government) have to
work to a common cause because we stand to lose more by losing
the plane and missing flights,” the official said, declining to
be named.
Economic analysts say Air Zimbabwe is struggling to survive
due to mounting debts, currently put at $40 million, and many
see it as a victim of mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe’s
ZANU-PF party and poor funding by government since independence
from Britain in 1980.
(Reporting By Cris Chinaka; editing by David Dolan)
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