In the past decade, Zimbabwe’s government has taken a bold step to rehabilitate the country’s major airports. After setting up the Airports Company of Zimbabwe (ACZ) in 2018, it began revamping small airports around the country. This week, senior business reporter, Freeman Makopa (FM) sat down with Tawanda Gusha (TG), the ACZ chief executive officer to discuss progress towards facelifting the country’s airports. Below are excerpts of the interview:
FM: Tell us about the current state of small airports?
TG: We are going to work on feasibility studies, which will then inform us of investments required for every airport. We are targeting smaller airports that are currently in operation, such as Charles Prince Airport, Kariba Airport, Hwange Airport, Masvingo Airport and Buffalo Range Airport. We have done a lot of work at Buffalo Range. So, we may not move with speed to do much at that airport, but there is scope to increase the capacity at that airport to improve the functionality of that airport. At Buffalo Range we will put a perimeter fence this year. We are already running a tender covering Buffalo Range and Charles Prince airports in terms of fencing. In addition, remember we are working towards constructing an airport in Beitbridge. It will be a greenfield project.
FM: How much is required for the Kariba Airport relocation?
TG: We are looking at a cost of a new airport with all the required infrastructure, which should be about US$100 million.
FM: What investment model are you going to be pursuing for that airport?
TG: The drive is to go through the public-private partnership (PPP) route. Again, the feasibility study will inform the model that will be taken. But we are biased towards PPPs. There are people who want to develop related facilities in Kariba, such as golf courses, Villas and others. These developments have to be in sync with a bigger plan for the Kariba area. At Hwange, we will be working on a few touch-ups using our own resources. Fastjet will be introducing flights there. Depending on how it turns out, we may be required to invest into upgrading certain infrastructure. At Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport (RGM), we are working on one or two hotels. We already have submissions made to the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency by potential investors, and we are waiting for a decision.
We have identified a potential site for the hotel, working with an international brand, which is likely to come in. Of course, announcements will be made once approvals are done. We want to develop an airport city around the airport. We are tendering for the development of a masterplan for RGM, as well as Victoria Falls International Airport and Joshua Mqabuko International Airport in Bulawayo. We want to start with those three. Their masterplans will inform the kind of investments that we will make at airports. But definitely, we have to develop complementary businesses around RGM and other two main airports.
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FM: What impact will these investments have to the aviation industry?
TG: The plan is to increase business at airports and the Airports Company of Zimbabwe. We are targeting developments that promote Cargo like horticulture and light manufacturing around the airports. We are also looking at developing warehousing facilities around the airport. We are also planning to develop a cargo terminal building at RGM in line with an anticipated rise in cargo traffic. We are working with other aviation industry stakeholders on an aggressive promotion approach to develop air traffic not only into RGM but also into JM Nkomo and Victoria Falls.
We have been working over the last three years with International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank (in key programmes) to promote business and attract long-haul flights.
FM: There has been talk about resumption of direct flights between London and Harare?
TG: I know about that call. But those are some of the initiatives that we are pursuing. Air Zimbabwe has cleared its IATA debt, which means it will be in a position to be readmitted into the IATA interline system. Because of that they are also looking at reintroducing flights on that route.
FM: You were recently appointed to the Airports Council International Africa ACI) board. Please share with us this development
TG: The Airports Council International represents airports around the world, just like IATA represents the airlines. It is structured in such a way that there are regions in various continents. We have ACI Africa, which is where we belong to as Zimbabwe. I was appointed to the board of ACI Africa. We were recently in Kigali for our first board meeting. Our term is running from January 2023 to December 2025. It is a three-year tenure. We are expected to contribute to the growth and development of aviation in Africa, particularly with emphasis on developments in airports.
FM: Is Zimbabwe fully utilising airports?
TG: We are currently operating at about 24% of capacity. But it varies from airport to airport. At this airport (RGM) we are operating at about 47% of capacity. But there are other airports that are operating at very low capacity. Capacity utilisation is an issue we have been working on to bring more traffic into the country. We were fortunate to be part of the Zimbabwe destination programme with the IFC and the World Bank, we is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry. We have been working with all stakeholders. We even managed to form a destination management organisation in Victoria Falls, which is called ‘We are Victoria Falls’. At its launch recently, we managed to sign a memorandum of understanding with Cape Town Tourism. We will be doing joint marketing with Cape Town Tourism, which is miles ahead of us. So, we stand to benefit a lot from that. That is an opportunity we will take to bring more traffic into the country. We will increase our capacity utilisation in the airports.
FM: What are some of the challenges you are facing?
TG: You can’t rule out the issue of sanctions. It has negatively affected us. It has negatively affected our capacity to reach out to airlines. But we continue to work tirelessly to make sure that where we can, we talk to the airlines. That’s why I am talking about our partnership with Cape Town Tourism. It is just one of many ways that we are going to be working on going forward, because we have seen that doing it alone may not necessarily bring the results that we want. We want to get to a point where we are marketing not only Zimbabwe but we are marketing the region, we are marketing southern Africa.
This is because if somebody is coming with a package or is taking tourists across southern Africa and they lend in Cape Town, they should be able to come to Victoria Falls, they should be able to come to Harare and go to Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia. That way, they experience the entire region. This is what we have been working on, and we have taken advantage of these partnerships and collaborations to grow our industry.
FM: Have you resolved land disputes around airports?
TG: I am happy to say there is now a multi-stakeholder approach to the utilisation of land around airports. We are now speaking the same language with planning authorities and land owners. So, you find that before developments can happen around airports, we are also consulted so we have our input.
Right now, we are working on having for RGM a development team that looks at developments around it and say how best can we have developments that complement the airport instead of having developments that are in conflict with our activities. That coordination is working very well. I am happy that the City of Harare has come on board, the Ministry of Local Government’s department of physical planning is working with us to make sure that we have controlled developments that will complement each other.
