Air Zimbabwe pilot strike over

AIR Zimbabwe says its two-week pilots’ strike is over and that it will resume flights on Friday. The pilots have been on strike for over two weeks due to a pay dispute with the airline.

Previously, Air Zimbabwe had said it was firing all the pilots for striking; chairman, Jonathan Kadzura claiming the airline was acting within national employment laws to do so. However, with the airline losing US$5 million a day from grounded flights it seems this was more a provocative rather than serious threat.

David Mwenga, Air Zimbabwe’s general manager for Europe, said: “What I can say for now is that we are resuming flights with our own staff on Friday. We are going ahead to engage our partners at the various airports where our planes fly to trying to see how we organise our flight programmes.”

Air Zimbabwe is being crippled with financial losses and an aging fleet. In the middle of the strike it announced plans to buy two A340s, something sure to have angered the pilots.