British Airways grounds loss-making Harare route

British Airways (BA) is to halt direct flights between Harare and London next month as the route is no longer profitable, an airline official said on Thursday.

BA’s regional commercial manager, Steve Harrison, told the official New Ziana news agency that the last flight on the London Heathrow-Harare route will be on October 28.

“The route between Harare and Heathrow has been making a considerable loss over the past few weeks,” Harrison was quoted as saying. “We operate in a highly competitive global market and cannot afford to sustain the losses on the Harare route any longer.”

BA follows a number of international airlines that have pulled out of the Zimbabwe route such as Swiss Air, Lufthansa, KLM, and Air France.

Harrison said that passengers who have already booked flights will be booked on alternative flights or reimbursed.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis characterised by world-record inflation, more than 80% joblessness and chronic shortages of foreign currency and fuel.

The tourism industry, once a mainstay of the economy, has shrunk drastically over the past seven years since Zimbabwe embarked on a controversial programme to seize farms owned by the minority white population.

President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has blamed Zimbabwe’s economic woes on the former colonial power Britain.—Sapa-AFP