Air Zimbabwe angers stranded passengers

By The NewsDay | Jul. 1, 2011 | 2 Min read

Disgruntled Air Zimbabwe passengers who were left stranded after their flight was cancelled at the eleventh hour have lashed out at the airline’s management for asking them to complete their trips by bus. The irate passengers said Air Zimbabwe management should have organised alternative transport by other airlines or at least apologise for the inconvenience […]

The irate passengers said Air Zimbabwe management should have organised alternative transport by other airlines or at least apologise for the inconvenience caused.

NewsDay was yesterday innundated with telephone calls from disgruntled passengers who were dumped by the airline on Thursday.

“We do not expect such shoddy service from the national airline,” said one of the callers.

“We expect a sound management system in place. As a national airliner, it carries our national pride, but we cannot say so if they offer mediocre services like this. If they are failing they should simply stop or call in private partners. Air Zimbabwe should know that as passengers generate income for the national airline hence they should respect us and not tell us to jump onto the bus.”

However, Air Zimbabwe acting group chief executive officer Moses Mapanda said they had resolved to limit their flights in and out of Harare because of the Boeing 737s which are grounded but said they always advised their passengers in advance of any cancellations.

“We have had to reduce our trips to Johannesburg, Bulawayo and Harare because of shortage of equipment. We do advise our passengers prior to the cancellation. We do communicate with our passengers because of the limited service we are offering,” said Mapanda. Mapanda said they however did not book people on buses as alleged.

“We contact our clients in advance and we give them three options. The options we offered them were either they are refunded, book on the next flight or we put them on another airline,” said Mapanda.