"NEGATIVE perceptions about the safety of travelling on Air Zimbabwe coupled with problems the national airline is facing have resulted in a drastic decrease in the number of passengers using it from one million per year in 1999 to 230 000 last year, a senior official said yesterday. . . . Capt Madombwe said although the airline was affected by foreign currency shortages, the little hard currency it made was being channelled towards maintenance of the aircraft. . . . Air Zimbabwe was also grappling with the shortage of Jet A1 fuel . . . . "There is a lot of excitement about Air Zimbabwe both in Zimbabwe and outside Zimbabwe. When there is a cancellation of a flight there is a lot of excitement about Air Zimbabwe," he said. . . . Retired Colonel Claudius Makova (Zanu-PF) said Air Zimbabwe's public relations department must double its efforts to spruce up the image of the national airline. "On the drop in number of passengers from 1 million to 230 000 per year, I don't want to say it is catastrophic but it is bad. Maybe the public relations strategies are not producing the required results and the only things people know about Air Zimbabwe are the negative not the positive things," he said.

Source : allAfrica.com

Johan