via Air Zimbabwe seeks partnership with Bombardier 7 November 2014
GOVERNMENT says Air Zimbabwe should maximise on the interests shown by Canadian plane manufacturer, Bombardier, urging the two parties to conclude discussions.
Bombardier took Air Zim and government officials on a test flight to Kariba on Wednesday to allow the troubled airline get a feel of Bombardier’s 67-seater Q400 NextGen.
Transport and Infrastructural Development minister Obert Mpofu said he was delighted by the interest Bombardier had shown in Air Zimbabwe.
“We are particularly grateful to Bombardier for their interest in our market and we hope to unveil this technological advancement through this demonstration,” Mpofu said.
“I have been informed discussions between Air Zimbabwe and Bombardier are progressing well and in view of our turnaround strategy, I urge both parties to negotiate and come up with a speedy conclusion.
“My ministry has opened the skies for more players to participate in the aviation industry and I hope this will be well received by them.
“The local space is available to those that want to get into it, so Air Zimbabwe should brace itself for competition from some of the operators that had stopped operating locally.”
He said the opening of the local space was designed to give passengers a wider selection to choose from.
Bombardier director of sales Sameer Adam said the Q400 NextGen was a low-cost operating aircraft and good for servicing domestic and regional flights.
“With the introduction of the Q400 NextGen aircraft, Bombardier invented the modern turboprop,” Adam said.
“Optimised for short-haul operations and seating up to 86 passengers, the aircraft is a large, fast, quiet and fuel-efficient turboprop that provides the perfect balance of passenger comfort, performance and operational flexibility with the lowest seat-mile costs in the short-haul regional market.”
Air Zimbabwe acting chief executive officer Edmund Makona said the visit by Bombardier officials would give the airline options of either engaging in partnership or buying aircraft to service domestic and regional routes.
“We believe that we cannot be a crocodile out there and we want to fully saturate the domestic routes and we can only do that when we have the right aircraft that can service our domestic routes,” Makona said.
“This is to enable us to go to many airports so that at the end of the day we make Harare a hub of Zimbabwe and we do look forward to that.”
COMMENTS