The Sunday News
GOVERNMENT must subsidise national carrier Air Zimbabwe so it can ply lucurative foreign desitinations as leaving them in the hands of foreign players can create huge gaps in tourist arrivals once the companies withdraw from the routes, an official has said.
In a statement after the announcement by KLM Dutch Royal that they were withdrawing from the Zambia, Zimbabwe route, Zimbabwe Toursim Authority chief executive officer Mr Karikoga Kaseke said subsidising the national carrier was a norm worldwide.
“It is wholly for this reason that we have been saying Air Zimbabwe should still be receiving some subsidies from the State as long as they have a vibrant business model supported by sound operational policies, knowledgeable and competent management. We do not see any reason why our Government should not subsidise them as it is arguably the norm the world over and for the benefit of the destination in case other airlines withdraw services,” he said.
Mr Kaseke said the situation with many foreign airlines was different from 100 percent State-owned national carriers as the latter could sustain losses for as long as they were not so huge as to compromise on other fundamental factors like safety.
“A national carrier does not only look at one route, instead it should have more routes where it can aggregate its loss-making route with profitable routes. This will ensure that it serves the national interests such as tourism.”
Mr Kaseke said the withdrawal by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from Zimbabwe was regrettable and the tourism sector would be the major casualty of this as the country had started making in-roads into the Dutch market.
“We are fully cognisant of the fact that when we talk about foreign carriers, they fly to destinations for as long as they see profitability. It is understandable that KLM might not have seen profitability in this route although we are not privy to their accounting books and projection analysis.”
He said it should be understood that when an airline develops a new route, they give it a period when they accept losses and that period can range from between six months and a year or beyond.
“This move by KLM, presumably, could be a reflection of general challenges hinging on the viability of the route among other factors. If our assumptions about KLM’s reasons for withdrawal are correct, we also want to bear with them. We are not sure if the authorities did not look at helping KLM anyhow in terms of other charges like air navigation, landing and parking fees among others.”
He, however, said Air Zimbabwe could take advantage of the withdrawal by KLM to look at how they could quickly re-introduce and re-develop the European routes.
“This is quite critical for the revival of our tourism.”
Last Wednesday KLM which resumed flights to Zimbabwe in 2012 after 13 years of absence announced that it would stop operating to Lusaka (Zambia) and Harare (Zimbabwe) effective 26 October, 2014.
“Recent optimisation in KLM’s network portfolio in East Africa led to the decision to discontinue direct services from Amsterdam to Lusaka and Harare,” said KLM.
There are 16 airlines flying into the country down from a peak of 48 in 1999 but there have been efforts to lure more and grow tourism, seen as one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.
