BULAWAYO – Air Zimbabwe passengers suffered travelling chaos starting on Friday last week after the airline’s only serviceable plane was grounded by a technical fault at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo.

The Boeing 767-200ER was still not flying on Sunday.

In a statement, Air Zimbabwe said its engineers were “working flat out to bring the aircraft back to serviceability” and normal operations were expected to resume soon, without provide a date.

The state-owned carrier said it was putting passengers on other airlines.

The B767 flies all Air Zimbabwe’s domestic and regional routes. It flies each morning from Harare to Bulawayo and then Victoria Falls before repositioning in the capital for the Johannesburg morning flight. It flies from Johannesburg to Harare in the evening.

Air Zimbabwe took delivery of an Embraer ERJ145 in May which was expected to ease pressure on its Boeing 767, but the plane cannot fly owing to regulatory delays.

The ERJ145 was acquired by Air Zimbabwe’s ill-fated proxy, Zimbabwe Airways.

Red flags were raised by the manufacturer and United States authorities, where the plane was purchased, after Air Zimbabwe sought to register it.

Embraer, the plane’s Brazilian manufacturer, is still conducting Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures before they issue Air Zimbabwe the aircraft’s operating manuals without which the plane cannot fly. US financial authorities, meanwhile, are also digging into how the initial transaction to buy the plane was carried out by Zimbabwe Airways.

The government has repeatedly claimed it has closed deals on acquiring four Boeing 777 aircraft from Malaysia – but the planes are yet to be delivered.