HARARE – Kenya Airways, which has millions of dollars in ticket sales stuck in Zimbabwe, stopped travel agents from ticketing inside the country on Saturday.
Kenya’s flag carrier, which is 7.8 percent owned by Air France KLM, last week reported a pre-tax loss of $40 million for the first half of 2018.
The airline is desperate to unlock millions of dollars stuck in Zimbabwe. Along with eight other airlines flying into Harare, Kenya Airways has tried – with help from the International Air Transport Association – to get the government to free up the funds for its operations.
IATA has told the Zimbabwe government that air transport is critical to its economy, and now Kenya Airways appears ready to use the threat of reduced capacity and frequencies to spur action.
The airline announced that it was temporarily suspending distribution of ticketing authority in Zimbabwe with effect from September 1. In effect, the airline will now only be taking bookings from outside Zimbabwe, or honouring payments online from non-resident travel agents.
Kenya Airways flies into Harare daily from Nairobi, where Zimbabweans jet off to other destinations in Europe and in Asia.
As of August, Zimbabwe owed foreign airlines $100 million in unremitted ticket sales receipts – a large chunk of it, some $60 million, owed to South African Airways. Fast Jet reported that it was owed $1.75 million.
Without the cash to fund day-to-day operations, “those airlines which are operating on small margins with cash-flow constraints are most affected,” said Chris Zweigenthal, CEO of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa. “We have supported IATA’s work in [unblocking funds]… It is important that a coordinated effort is undertaken to ensure there are no mixed messages to governments.”
