eBusiness Weekly
Africa Moyo
Zimbabwe has spurned a potentially lucrative deal that would have seen it getting two brand new Dreamliner 787s from United States-based aircraft manufacturer, Boeing on good terms, if it had started flying the planes acquired from Malaysia.
Critically, by failing or delaying to implement the deal, the country also risks losing out on a massive job creation project, as Boeing wanted to set up a technology hub in Harare, to service Boeing planes used by other airlines operating in the region.
Zimbabwe tied a deal to purchase four used Boeing 777-200ERs from Malaysian Airlines at a combined cost of $70 million early 2017 and the first aircraft was commissioned in April last year.
Government had paid $41 million towards the acquisition of the four Boeing 777s.
Business Weekly understands that ZimAirways, a new debt-free national airline set up by Government to duck Air Zimbabwe’s choking debts which had seen some companies wanting to impound aircraft, was supposed to fly the aircraft from Malaysia for at least two years before the two Dreamliner 787s were released.
However, with almost a year now since the first Boeing 777 landed at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, nothing appears to be moving, with reports indicating that two of the planes have since been sold to Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines is a major US airline with headquarters in SeaTac, Washington, for an as yet unknown price.
Architecture of the deal
Two top Government officials, separately confirmed to Business Weekly yesterday that Harare had inked a lucrative deal that would have seen it getting two Dreamliners from Boeing on good terms.
“It is true that Boeing wanted to facilitate a debt plan that would have seen us getting two Dreamliners on reasonable terms. That would have helped the country have reliable planes and potentially start making profit,” said a top Government official with aviation experience.
“So apart from the Dreamliners, Boeing also wanted to turn RGM International Airport into a regional hub because they were saying ‘you are the ones that are using Boeing planes when others such as South African Airways are using the Airbus’.
“Further, if we don’t implement the deal — which is highly likely now for unclear reasons, we stand to lose on route networks that Boeing had started for us.”
It is understood that Boeing had started working on a plan that would have seen ZimAirways plying the lucrative Harare-London-Harare route using one of the Boeing 777s.
More importantly, Boeing had also started training locals to gird loins for more cooperation between the country and Harare, with reports indicating that people such as Simba Chikore, former Air Zimbabwe’s chief operating officer, having already been taken to London for training.
A number of other people with aviation and engineering backgrounds had been earmarked for similar training.
Another source confirmed the deal, adding that it was “a very good deal”.
“As you are already aware, we had paid for the planes and there was no reason for them to remain idle. There was a lot of assistance that was supposed to come from Boeing.
“They (Boeing) had about three people who were already in the country. The company had said it would give us its people at each level to train our people such as crew, and for every aspect you can think of, related to operating an airline including the entire administration system.
“After five or seven months, our people would then take-over the running of the company. But all that is gone, if nothing drastic is done to salvage the deal,” said the well-placed source.
Efforts to get a concrete comment from Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Engineer Joe Biggie Matiza, were fruitless as his mobile phone was unreachable amid indications that he is outside the country.
His deputy, Advocate Fortune Chasi, said he was not up to speed with the deal, and referred further question to Engineer Matiza.
Boeing, a US multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide, was selling the Dreamliner 787-8 for $239 million as at last year.
The company, which also provides leasing and product support services, was founded on July 15, 1916 in Seattle, Washington.
