Remaining five provinces to have commercial airports
Plans are in the pipeline to construct commercial airports in the remaining five national provinces to facilitate trade and to improve movement of tourists.
So far the country has eight commercial airports: Robert Gabriel Mugabe (RGM) International Airport (Harare), Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo (Bulawayo), Buffalo Range and Masvingo Airports (Masvingo), Hwange and Victoria Falls (Matabeleland North), Kariba and Charles Prince (Mashonaland West).
Mashonaland Central and East provinces, Manicaland, the Midlands and Matabeleland South do not have commercial airports.
Mashonaland Central is a low hanging fruit housing Mbire District, home to Kanyemba Border that is promising to be one of the most popular corridors leading up north.
Speaking in an interview recently, Airports Company of Zimbabwe (ACZ) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tawanda Gusha, who could not in the meantime disclose funding models the projects, said the existing airports were meant to carter for economic activities in major centres only.
“You will find out that we are into airports and infrastructure development, that is the construction and rehabilitation of airports and identification of new sites where new airports have to be constructed.
“In this case I will talk about Mutare (Manicaland) for instance and Beitbridge Matabeleland South), where currently we do not have commercial airports. We also do not have commercial airport in Mashonaland Central province. It is Government’s desire to have commercial airports in all the provinces. The current airports were targeting
tourist areas as well as industrial areas in the country,” he said.
That is why according to Mr Gusha there were major airports in Harare (RGM International Airport) and another one in Mt Humpden at Charles Prince airport.
Charles Prince Airport is used by some operators flying in and out of Harare for private businesses. “That one (Charles Prince) was meant most for general aviation and by general aviation we are talking about charter flights and training schools for pilot training. That is our main airport where you find pilot training taking place,”
Zimbabwe has eight airports doted around the country, the biggest being RGM international Airport in Harare and Joshua Nquabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo that were developed mainly to carter for industrial business and tourism.
Victoria Falls International Airport and Kariba Airport were meant to carter for Victoria Falls and Kariba Dams respectively and tourism activities surrounding the two major centres.
“Buffalo Range besides tourism there is also agriculture that takes place there – Tungaat Hullets, the sugar company. Masvingo obviously because of the great Zimbabwe and Hwange National Park and by its name is right in the heart of Hwange National Park,” he said.
ACZ was created this year after unbundling, CAAZ, which maintained its name and identity, but its mandate now limited to regulatory functions, while the former’s key mandate being to acquire, establish and manage airports in the country.
The separation of responsibilities was done in accordance with international best practices.
Under its previous structure, CAAZ was both the player and the referee in that it had regulatory oversight, but also operated airports, now it will regulate the operations of the aviation industry, including those of the newly-established ACZ.-eBusiness Weekly
