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#1 30-May-2005 13:31:59
Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
http://www.reuters.co.za/locales/c_news … ID=8642442
Zimbabwe govt slams airline for one-passenger flight
Mon May 30, 2005 4:48 PM GMT+02:00
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government has criticised the cash-strapped national airline for flying unviable routes, including one trip which saw an Air Zimbabwe jet fly 6,000 km (3,728 miles) from Dubai with a solitary passenger aboard.
The official Herald newspaper on Monday quoted Transport and Communications Secretary Karikoga Kaseke as saying Air Zimbabwe, struggling with chronic fuel shortages caused by the country's acute economic crisis, was a victim of "inept management".
Local media reported earlier this month that Air Zimbabwe's maiden flight to Dubai, a Boeing 737, left with 49 passengers on board and made the return flight with just one.
"Our investigations have revealed that no proper market research was done before they (Air Zimbabwe) engaged on the Dubai trip," the Herald quoted Kaseke as saying.
"It reflects the level of mediocrity of the management at Air Zimbabwe and it also reflects a management that has little knowledge of aviation, a management that acts on hearsay," he added.
Kaseke and Air Zimbabwe officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
Industry officials say Air Zimbabwe has also been forced to delay several flights in recent weeks because of fuel shortages dating back to 1999 which have worsened over the past month.
The fuel crunch, together with shortages of foreign currency and basic commodities like sugar, cooking oil and milk, are part of an economic slide many blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-owned farms for landless blacks.
Kaseke denied the government, isolated from Western countries mainly over the land seizures, had forced Air Zimbabwe to fly routes to Asia and Arab countries under a "Look East" policy of boosting economic ties with those regions.
Mugabe denies mismanaging the country since taking power at independence from Britain in 1980, and says the former colonial ruler has led an international assault on Zimbabwe's economy through sanctions slapped in retaliation for the land redistribution programme.
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#2 30-May-2005 14:42:40
- Cyrille
- Member
- From: Züri (CH)
- Registered: 15-April-2003
- Posts: 895
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
On Air France I once was alone on board, but first it was an EM2 (33 seats) and second, the flight back from Züri to Lyon was nearly full. Nevertheless, I was a great experience.
Last edited by Cyrille Roche (30-May-2005 14:43:27)
Cheers, Cyrille.
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#4 30-May-2005 18:16:46
- billl142
- J cool
- Registered: 01-September-2003
- Posts: 647
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
Well if Mugabe wasn't so inept and so blatantly stupid Zimbabwe wouldn't be in the crisis its in. Mugabe is a dictator plain and simple and if you look around the world at the countries which are under dictatorship you will see that they have all had economic sanctions imposed and that the quality of life is very low. Hes brought this on himself and his people.
Bill142 Makes Everything Better.
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#5 31-May-2005 02:32:16
- alatoo_ch
- Member
- From: St.Gallen, Switzerland
- Registered: 30-April-2005
- Posts: 29
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
As far as I heard Helvetic once flew on the VIE-ZRH route with NO passenger on board! (but they had to fly because of the inboud leg which was more successful :-)
Petits-pois-et-carottes-Ã -la-Vichysoise-lover
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#6 31-May-2005 02:49:19
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
This story reminds me of an article I read in Airliner World. It was written by a captain who used to fly for Air Nauru in the 70's and early 80's. Nauru found its wealth in copper and was the 'rich kid' in the South Pacific. The ruler had an ambitious plan and developed its airline's network aggressively, obviously without much research. The airline used to fly to Japan and the captain said that he used to fly there on a 727 or 737 empty without any passengers! The airline and the country soon went into financial difficulties as the mineral ran out. Now, the country has to rely on handouts from Australia. Another story of bad management.
Wayne
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#7 31-May-2005 03:33:30
- Markus
- Administrator
- From: Innsbruck, Austria
- Registered: 24-February-2003
- Posts: 773
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
alatoo_ch wrote:
As far as I heard Helvetic once flew on the VIE-ZRH route with NO passenger on board! (but they had to fly because of the inboud leg which was more successful :-)
When I flew Helvetic from Vienna to Zurich last August, there were just about 20 passengers onboard! I don't know how full they get their planes on other routes - Airbusfreak?! 
I once have heard that FlyNiki must stuck their aircrafts at least 80% full with passengers to make money - from Zurich to Vienna the Airbus 320 was totally full the day after!
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#8 31-May-2005 06:15:07
- Cyrille
- Member
- From: Züri (CH)
- Registered: 15-April-2003
- Posts: 895
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
Marco, if you accept my answer :-)
VIE is a bit problematic for helvetic, because the competition against FlyNiki is very strong. But as the crew training area for Fokker 100 is in VIE and every crew member has frequent safety checks there, it is OK for them to fly there, even if comercially it is not that succesful. If you had to put all crew members on Swiss, AUA or Niki, it would be much more expensif.
Cheers, Cyrille.
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#9 31-May-2005 06:17:00
- jbensley
- Member
- Registered: 16-February-2004
- Posts: 28
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
I was on a UA flight from SYD-LAX. 747-400. All 18 of us on board.
That rocked.
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#10 31-May-2005 08:32:09
- billl142
- J cool
- Registered: 01-September-2003
- Posts: 647
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
Wayne wrote:
This story reminds me of an article I read in Airliner World. It was written by a captain who used to fly for Air Nauru in the 70's and early 80's. Nauru found its wealth in copper and was the 'rich kid' in the South Pacific. The ruler had an ambitious plan and developed its airline's network aggressively, obviously without much research. The airline used to fly to Japan and the captain said that he used to fly there on a 727 or 737 empty without any passengers! The airline and the country soon went into financial difficulties as the mineral ran out. Now, the country has to rely on handouts from Australia. Another story of bad management.
Wayne
Not to mention that the government of Nauru borrowed money from GE's finance arm and have struggled to make repayments. It could soon be "Nauru, a GE Country"
Bill142 Makes Everything Better.
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#11 31-May-2005 09:02:30
- alatoo_ch
- Member
- From: St.Gallen, Switzerland
- Registered: 30-April-2005
- Posts: 29
Re: Air Zimbabwe one-passenger flight
Markus wrote:
When I flew Helvetic from Vienna to Zurich last August, there were just about 20 passengers onboard! I don't know how full they get their planes on other routes - Airbusfreak?!
I once have heard that FlyNiki must stuck their aircrafts at least 80% full with passengers to make money - from Zurich to Vienna the Airbus 320 was totally full the day after!
Re. empty Helvetic flights:
On my last flight from LTN to ZRH there were maybe 25 people on board. It seems that the Southern Europe flights are more profitable. If you ask me, the biggest problem with Helvetic is that they're way too expensive (in other terms its not a budget airline at all).
But that's probably not a topic to be discussed on this forum.
Petits-pois-et-carottes-Ã -la-Vichysoise-lover
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