Air Zimbabwe's plan to lease aircraft from Malaysian Airlines falls through

Troubled national airline Air Zimbabwe’s plan to lease modern aircraft from Malaysian Airlines fell through as the two parties could not agree on terms.  Air Zimbabwe owes creditors $300 million and is operating old aircraft, and is looking for more modern planes to revive its fortunes.

Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, confirmed that deal had fallen through although he was not alarmed saying:

I am still talking with potential airlines and we may agree soon,At the moment I do not want to say who they are. We were talking to 11 airlines in Singapore, in Ethiopia and other countries and there was nothing special about Malaysia. I only mentioned Malaysia (last year) because I went there to see planes that they were not using but we could not agree on certain issues.

Air Zimbabwe has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons after it was revealed that it last submitted financial statements for auditing in 2009. It also flew only three passengers from Harare to South Africa.

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