The state-controlled Herald newspaper said Air Zimbabwe
pilots and cabin crew walked out of work on Wednesday demanding payment of
allowances that were cut off in February.
The work boycott, which left two planes abandoned on the
runway at Harare International Airport, affected local and international
flights, the newspaper reported.
“Air Zimbabwe, as an employer, cannot afford to pay the
salaries being demanded by the pilots,” the carrier’s chairman, Jonathan
Kadzura, told state television.
Even without the allowances, he said pilots were being paid
at least $1,200 a month, a salary he called outrageously high given the state
of the economy.
Air Zimbabwe is a perennial loss-maker weighed down by an
ageing fleet, debt and the effects of a decade-long economic crisis in the
southern African country.
The carrier is currently embroiled in a legal dispute over
its move last year to shed over 500 jobs in a bid to cut costs.
A government prospectus published last year showed Air
Zimbabwe needed $750 million to renew its fleet and install a hangar fire
protection system. Under the plan, the government would give up a 60 percent
stake in exchange for the cash injection.
Air Zimbabwe’s passenger numbers have declined by more than
30 percent since 2000. This coincided with a sharp drop in tourist arrivals as
the country plunged into a political and economic crisis blamed on President
Robert Mugabe’s violent seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless
blacks.
