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Air Zimbabwe Wants Its Engineers Back, Plans Maintenance Hub

Air Zimbabwe Wants Its Engineers Back, Plans Maintenance Hub

From a Herald report in AllAfrica.

National airline Air Zimbabwe has come up with an ambitious plan to go for European Aviation Safety Agency certification and establish an aircraft maintenance center that it hopes will become a hub for Africa.

The struggling airline believes the plan, which will leverage on its human resources expertise, will allow it to diversify its revenue streams and stop relying on income from its passenger business.

Air Zimbabwe acting CEO Edmund Makona said the national airline had already taken steps towards European Aviation Safety Agency certification and will before the end of this month invite the agency to start the accreditation process.

“Because of our low aviation labor rates, it will allow us to attract airlines that are registered in the E.U. for maintenance of their aircraft,” Makona said.

As part of this ambitious plan, Makona said the airline was working on a strategy to attract most of its engineers who left for greener pastures mainly to the United Arab Emirates.

“We have the best human resources in the whole of Africa and our strategy seeks to maximize on our people.

“Most importantly, we seek to recall our people from wherever they are. Most of our engineers are in the Middle East working for the Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Company,” he said. “We will create our own (hub) in Zimbabwe becoming an aircraft maintenance center for Africa.”

Without any financial support from Zimbabwe government — the sole shareholder in Air Zimbabwe — the airline is currently surviving from hand to mouth.

Meanwhile, Makona said Air Zimbabwe has finally invested in a system that allows its passengers to make direct bookings on the Internet as it slowly catches up with technological advancements in the aviation industry.

The system, called the Internet Booking Engine, has been in use for years but the struggling national carrier failed to invest in it due to financial challenges.

Read more at AllAfrica.