Zimbabwe yesterday cleared all South African Airways (SAA)
and British Airways (BA) flights that sought to land in the country following
fruitful engagement among the concerned aviation authorities, Transport and
Infrastructure Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo has said.
On the other hand,
Air Zimbabwe’s morning flight to South Africa was also cleared. These
developments followed an earlier tiff on operating licences, which had expired
resulting in the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) barring all SAA
planes from landing in Zimbabwe on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, CAAZ grounded an SAA flight SA025 at
Harare International Airport in retaliation to the Friday incident where South
African authorities had also grounded an Airzim flight at Oliver Tambo
International Airport, leaving passengers stranded.
Similarly, a BA aircraft was denied clearance to land at
Victoria Falls International Airport, forcing the aircraft to land in
Livingstone, Zambia.
Dr Gumbo said although authorities were still sorting out
the necessary paper work, they have resumed clearance of flights on all sides.
“In the morning (yesterday) we cleared two South African
Airways flights and two British Airways flights. An Air Zimbabwe flight to
Johannesburg was also cleared in the morning so we want to believe that the
impasse has been resolved. At the same time, authorities are doing what they
were supposed to have done and we do not expect that process to take very
long,” said Dr Gumbo.
CAAZ general manager Mr David Chaota also confirmed the
latest development, saying flights commenced landing yesterday.
“Since morning all flights were being cleared,” said Mr
Chaota.
Questioned on licence renewals, Mr Chaota said it was not
an overnight process since there were applications and approvals involved.
“We are still working on those, but the good thing is that
flights have resumed normal services,” he said.
This impasse had not affected other airlines like Air Link
of South Africa from landing in Zimbabwe. herald
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