{"id":22573,"date":"2026-01-14T09:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/22573\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T09:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:44:07","slug":"air-zimbabwe-plans-775-5mn-six-aircraft-fleet-renewal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/22573\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Zimbabwe plans $775.5mn six aircraft fleet renewal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Air Zimbabwe<\/a> (UM, Harare International<\/a>) plans to acquire six new aircraft over the next three years at a cost of USD775.5 million as part of a five-year strategic turnaround strategy aimed at restoring its domestic, regional, and international operations, the state-owned newspaper The Herald reported. <\/p>\n

Backed by the Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), a sovereign wealth fund that manages more than 20 strategic state-owned enterprises, and the National Treasury, the procurement will replace the airline\u2019s ageing single B737-200<\/a> and single B767-200ER<\/a> with newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft to reduce high maintenance costs.<\/p>\n

The plan involves a three-tier expansion: two domestic aircraft valued at USD49 million each, two regional jets priced at USD101 million each, and two long-haul widebodies costing USD225 million each to resume direct international services.<\/p>\n

ch-aviation has contacted Air Zimbabwe for comment.<\/p>\n

The flag carrier continues to wet-lease one ATR42-500<\/a>, 5Y-RNV (msn 637), from Kenya’s Renegade Air<\/a> for domestic and regional flights, ADS-B data confirms. <\/p>\n

None of its in-house aircraft are currently in service. One E145<\/a>, Z-WPU (msn 145559), last flew on December 20, 2025, and is now parked at Harare International<\/a>, while the other E145, Z-WPQ (msn 145373), last flew in September 2023. Its only B737-200<\/a>, Z-WPA (msn 23677), last flew on August 14, 2025, and its sole B767-200ER<\/a>, Z-WPF (msn 24867), has been grounded since June 28.<\/p>\n

The recapitalisation follows Air Zimbabwe\u2019s transition to management under the MIF in 2023 and aligns with the government\u2019s National Development Strategy 2, which prioritises improved connectivity to support tourism growth. <\/p>\n

Established in September 2023, the MIF reported a USD3.6 million surplus in its first operational year ending December 2024, plus USD8 million income and USD5.8 million in dividends from portfolio firms. The MIF is overseen by the Ministry of Finance, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa as trustee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air Zimbabwe (UM, Harare International) plans to acquire six new aircraft over the next three years at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[2632,2640,2628,2638,2636,2635,2631,2637,2625,2639,2626,2633,2634,2629,2627,2630,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-22573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zimbabwe","8":"tag-aircraft-orders","9":"tag-alliances","10":"tag-new-routes","11":"tag-operator-acquisition","12":"tag-operator-bankruptcies","13":"tag-operator-bankruptcy","14":"tag-operator-fleet-news","15":"tag-operator-merger","16":"tag-operator-news","17":"tag-operator-partnership","18":"tag-operator-route-network","19":"tag-operator-start-up","20":"tag-operator-start-ups","21":"tag-route-cancellations","22":"tag-route-network-changes","23":"tag-strategic-fleet-developments","24":"tag-zimbabwe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}