RESTORED HARARE-LONDON ROUTE WILL STRENGTHEN ZIM-UK TOURISM, SAYS MINISTER MHONA

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Advocate Felix Mhona delivered the keynote address at a welcome dinner in London on Wednesday evening, honouring Air Zimbabwe’s return to direct flights between Harare and London Gatwick after a 16-year absence.

The dinner, held at The Cumberland Hotel near Marble Arch, brought together guests to mark the national carrier’s re-entry onto the route, with the inaugural flight having touched down at Gatwick Airport at 08:10 that morning.

In his address, Mhona framed the relaunch as the clearest visible sign of Zimbabwe’s broader re-engagement push with the international community, describing it as that agenda playing out in the skies. He said the restored connection would help deepen trade, investment, tourism and people-to-people links not only between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, but across Europe more widely.

The minister told guests that the flight represented more than a transport link between the two cities. He characterised it as carrying renewed friendship, restored confidence, and reciprocal opportunity between Zimbabwe and Britain, alongside its passengers and cargo.

Mhona also used the occasion to acknowledge the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority, crediting the regulator for what he described as a thorough and fair process in granting Air Zimbabwe its Foreign Operator Permit — the authorisation required for the airline to operate flights into UK airspace. He was emphatic that the permit had been earned on merit, and said Air Zimbabwe would need to continue meeting that same standard to retain it going forward.

Closing his remarks, the minister appealed directly to three groups he said stood to benefit most from the restored route: Zimbabweans living in the diaspora, British investors, and the wider business community. He urged all three to make active use of the connection, describing it as a route that reopens Zimbabwe’s ties to the rest of the world.

The Harare-London Gatwick route had been suspended for 16 years before its relaunch, during which time Zimbabwean travellers relied on indirect connections via regional and Gulf hubs to reach the UK. Its restoration follows a broader push by Zimbabwean authorities to rebuild international transport and trade links as part of the country’s wider economic re-engagement strategy.