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In response to British Airways’ pullout from Harare, Air Zimbabwe will boost its service between Harare and London Gatwick to 5x per week.

Air Zimbabwe has reportedly entered into agreement with Lignes Aériennes Congolaises to provide service from Harare, Zimbabwe to Brussels, Belgium via Kinshasa, DRC. Flights will be operated on Mondays and Thursdays using Air Zimbabwe B762s. No schedule details have been announced.

Air Zimbabwe, having reintroduced its weekly flights to Dubai, UAE and Guangzhou, China, will double services to the former to 2x per week. Dubai will be served on Mondays and Wednesdays, with stops at Lusaka, Zambia and Lilongwe, Malawi. Zambia Skyways and Air Malawi also place their respective codes on the route.

Air Zimbabwe has signed agreements with Air Malawi and Zambia Skyways to serve London via Lilongwe and Lusaka, respectively. Effective December 6, the airline will serve London via Lilongwe on Wednesdays, along with service via Lusaka on Fridays and Sundays.

Air Zimbabwe has reportedly suspended flights to London, UK, fearing seizure of its aircraft over unpaid debt to Europe’s Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol). Passengers between Harare and London are being accomodated on flights operated by British Airways and South African Airways.

EDIT Nov 13: Air Zimbabwe announced that it has made the required payments, and expects to resume services to London on Wednesday.

Air Zimbabwe is to begin services between Harare and Guangzhou, China as early as mid-November. Flights will be operated once per week on Mondays via Singapore using B762 aircraft. The airline currently serves Beijing twice per week, and will halve this frequency in favour of Guangzhou. Air Zimbabwe becomes the third African airline to serve Guangzhou, after Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways.

UM772 HRE - SIN: 2215 - 1445
UM772 SIN - CAN: 1545 - 1945
UM773 CAN - SIN: 2115 - 115
UM773 SIN - HRE: 215 - 615

Air Zimbabwe will reduce its frequency to London Gatwick as of the end of October, eliminating one of two early morning departures per week out of Harare. Flights will operate on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Air Zimbabwe and Air Malawi signed an agreement to codeshare on the former’s flights to Dubai from Harare, Zimbabwe, which will now operate via Lilongwe, Malawi on Mondays. Two other flights are operated during the week via Entebbe, Uganda codeshared with East African Airlines.

Air Zimbabwe and Air Tanzania announced this week an agreement to place both airlines’ codes on flights operated between Harare and Dar Es Salaam. Air Zimbabwe holds a similar agreement with Air Malawi and Air Botswana.

The government of Zimbabwe has signed an agreement to procure Ilyushin aircraft from Russia, for use by Air Zimbabwe. The deal calls for five Il-96s, including three -400T freighters and two -400M passenger aircraft. The firm order is set to be placed in July.

Air Zimbabwe took delivery of a Chinese-made MA60 on Friday at a ceremony held in Xi’an, China. This aircraft joins two others that are already serving the airline on domestic and regional routes.

Air Zimbabwe reportedly grounded all of its flights on Monday citing fuel shortages. It appeared however that some flights did resume on Tuesday. Two of the airline’s senior staff have been suspended pending investigations.

Air Zimbabwe started serving Dubai earlier this month, with 2x per week flights via Entebbe, Ugandam, on one of the company’s B762’s. While there currently is no competition between HRE and DXB, with Air Zimbabwe’s fifth freedom rights out of Entebbe, this stopover city is now served to DXB by two airlines, with the other one being Emirates.

Air Zimbabwe also flirted with serving Beijing China via Bangkok one day per week while maintaining another weekly frequency via Singapore. However, as of May 13, all flights are now operated via Singapore.

Finally, the airline has received it’s much anticipated China-made MA60 aircraft. Two of these 50-seater props will be operated on local and regional routes. They are now put into service to Lilongwe, Malawi, a destination UM restarted on May 16.