Air Zimbabwe in a legal tussle over ownership of two A320 aircrafts.




Zimbabwe owned national carrier, Air Zimbabwe is embroiled in a legal tussle over the ownership of two A320s. The two Airbus planes arrived at the carrier over seven years ago, but have barely been used yet. While the leasing company, South Jet, says Air Zimbabwe needs to pay for the planes, the carrier maintains that they were a donation and that South Jet need to release the paperwork to allow them to repair the planes.

The carrier claims that the planes were donated to the Government of Zimbabwe by authorities in the Isle of Man, and subsequently passed to the airline. However, South Jet maintains that the aircraft are dry leased from them and have taken Air Zimbabwe to court over its failure to pay the leasing fees.

The two Airbus A320-200s, registered Z-WPM and Z-WPN, we arranged to go to Zimbabwe in a deal spearheaded by China Sonangol International. At the time, the Chinese partner was looking to bail out the Mugabe regime and help revive the debt-laden national carrier.
The official said that Air Zimbabwe is keen to sort out the ownership paperwork because they do want to fly the planes.

In a different twist however, South Jet claims that the A320s are both dry leased to Air Zimbabwe and that the carrier has not been paying the leasing fees on the planes for some time.

As for Air Zimbabwe, losing these two aircraft and having the backdated lease account imposed on their accounts would only add to the challenges Air Zimbabwe are facing. It is currently estimated that the airline is in debt by more than $350m. Sole owner, the Zimbabwean government, has tried to resurrect the airline by appealing to investors, but as yet no entity has been willing to take a gamble on the beleaguered national carrier.

Aviation Roundtable will keep you abreast of development as it unfolds in this legal tussle for the sole ownership of the aforementioned aircrafts.

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