Zimbabwe’s national carrier, Air Zimbabwe, is hoping to restart flights between Harare and London in June 2026.
Speaking at a lecture at the Harare Institute of Technology, John Mangudya, CEO of the Mutapa Investment Fund (Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth fund established to manage the country’s investments and entities, including Air Zimbabwe) announced that Air Zimbabwe is planning to relaunch flights between Harare and London by June as part of its revival plan.
“We are putting in place a facility to lease a bigger aircraft, maybe a Boeing, to fly the Harare-London route,” said Mangudya.
Air Zimbabwe London flights
Air Zimbabwe intends to lease aircraft for the restart of the London route as well as various other regional and domestic ones.
The airline last operated services to London in 2012. It flew to London Gatwick, with a Boeing 767-200 aircraft, which it owns. However, Air Zimbabwe discontinued flights on this route due to financial difficulties.
Before Air Zimbabwe will be able to resume service to London, it will have to obtain clearances to fly to the UK as well as to overfly European Union airspace.
The carrier is on the list of airlines banned from operating commercial air services to, from, and within the UK and the EU, including overflights.
A desirable route
The route is indeed one of the most unserved on the continent, with substantial passenger demand, but without an operator providing a direct scheduled service between the city pair.
This was revealed by Airbus, at the AviaDev Summit held in Windhoek,in 2024. The study of unserved and underserved routes was undertaken by Airbus executive Geert Lemaire.
