Air Zimbabwe resumes Harare-London flights via ACMI deal with Spain's Plus Ultra
The African carrier is not allowed to operate in UK or EU airspace using its own aircraft. Air Zimbabwe plans to reinstate flights to the UK after a more than 14-year hiatus through an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) arrangement with Chapman Freeborn that will see Spanish airline Plus Ultra operate the route on behalf of the African carrier with an Airbus A330. Harare-based Air Zimbabwe remains on the UK Air Safety List and continues to be blacklisted by the European Commission, which means it is not permitted to operate in EU or UK airspace with its own aircraft. For this reason, it has reached a long-term agreement with Chapman Freeborn – a division of Avia Solutions Group – for the service to be operated by Madrid-based charter specialist Plus Ultra. The new Harare-London Gatwick route will operate three times a week from the end of this month. "This is an important milestone for Air Zimbabwe and a significant step in restoring direct connectivity between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom," says Chapman Freeborn's India, Middle East and Africa president, Linas Dovydenas. "Across Africa, we continue to see growing demand for flexible capacity solutions as airlines look to rebuild networks, respond to passenger demand and manage fleet requirements more efficiently." Chapman Freeborn's ACMI director, Daniel Huggins, says long-haul arrangements such as that reached with Air Zimbabwe require "close co-ordination between airlines, operators, aviation authorities and commercial partners". He adds: "In this case, our team supported the project from a capacity and contract-management perspective, helping to bring together the right structure for a strategically important route." Air Zimbabwe primarily operates domestic and regional flights in Africa. It lists on its website a fleet comprising A330-300, ATR 42-500, Boeing 777-200, 767-200, 737 and Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft. The carrier was placed on the European Union Aviation Safety Agency's blacklist in 2017. It had operated Harare-London flights up until the end of 2011, when one of its 767-200s was impounded at Gatwick for an alleged failure by the airline to keep up to date with payments for spare parts.