Air Zimbabwe continued to fly yesterday with few passengers. Airzim acting group chief executive officer Mr Innocent Mavhunga last night confirmed the national airline had flown on the Harare-Bulawayo route but with a "depressed" number of passengers.

Mr Mavhunga, however, could not disclose the number of passengers the airline flew. The Harare-Johannesburg flight, he said, would resume today as scheduled.

"The numbers are picking up slowly and our plane left for Bulawayo this morning and returned," he said. "The numbers are still depressed but as we said we expected it because the number cannot just rise because we have to restore customer confidence.

We are resuming the Harare-Johannesburg flight tomorrow, the first time in two months, and I can confirm the numbers are encouraging."

Mr Mavhunga said they were a "scheduled operator" which had to stick to a specific timetable.

"It does not mean that if people are few we don't have to fly. We have to adhere to the schedule," he said.

On Sunday, the airline flew back from Victoria Falls to Harare with one passenger as it struggles to restore customer confidence.

The Herald/21/09/2011