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Freeman Razemba Senior Reporter

Harare’s airport dedicated to light aircraft and flying schools, Charles Prince Airport in Mount Hampden, is scheduled for upgrade as Government continues to modernise the country’s aviation infrastructure.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Joy Makumbe, has said airports were important in building the country’s economy and improved accessibility, hence the need to keep them up to standard.

She told a Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe general aviation stakeholders’ engagement workshop in Mt Hampden last week that Government was on a trajectory to modernise Zimbabwean aviation infrastructure and this included plans for restoring Charles Prince Airport “to its former glory”.

The airport was developed from one of the three small Harare airports built near the beginning of the Second World War as part of the huge Royal Air Force training establishment in the country.

It included a major air base near Gweru and three training facilities in Bulawayo.

The Cranborne facility can still be mapped on the road network at 2 Brigade headquarters, and the main runway of Belvedere Airport, which became the main civil airport after the world war until the commissioning of what is now Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.

Light aircraft and especially flying club activities and flying schools, are not generally welcome at major passenger airports for both safety reasons and because they can block a long heavy duty runway.

Charles Hilton Prince, whom the airport is named after, was a civil servant who had started helping to pioneer civil aviation in 1937 and spent much of the second half of his career at the small airport from 1958, as it opened as a civil airport. He was the first airport manager and also doubling as the first civil air traffic controller.

Engineer Makumbe noted other Government efforts to upgrade infrastructure would benefit Charles Prince.

“As further evidence of Government’s commitment, we need not look any further than the current activities with the road rehabilitation projects, including the Harare Chirundu highway, just a few kilometres from here. This project will see spill over benefits accruing to this airport in terms of improved accessibility.

“We also anticipate that as a consequence of this project, downstream benefits to the aviation sector, in the form of good intermodal transport connectivity and improved trade and investment will be realised.”

In a speech read on her behalf by Mr Allowance Sango, the ministry’s strategic policy planning and monitoring and evaluation director, Eng Makumbe said the ministry had taken a leading role in ensuring full implementation of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 flagship programme, the single African air transport market, generally known as the Open Skies policy.

“This policy is aimed at the full implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision, which emphasises increased air connectivity on the African continent. But to successfully connect Africa, we start from home connectivity, that is the domestic network. Therefore, there is a need for a robust and fully supported domestic connectivity framework to feed into the growing international connectivity which is where the role of general aviation becomes critical.

“In line with His Excellency’s mantra of a Zimbabwe that is open for business, the ministry is in full support of initiatives and activities by CAAZ in ensuring that Zimbabwean skies are open for general aviation business growth,” she said.

The ministry was aware of some of the challenges being faced by stakeholders following a submission by the Civil Aviation Authority, which included their request for waiver of duty on aircraft spares and related industry equipment.

CAAZ board chairman Captain Alois Nyandoro said the workshop was part of recommendations made by stakeholders for continuous engagement and creating good rapport.

“As you might be aware, the aviation industry is a highly regulated industry that is expected to always stay compliant with the established standards and recommended practices as guided by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

“It is important to note that within the same compliance framework, the CAAZ board in its oversight role, takes seriously concerns that are raised by stakeholders,” he said.

CAAZ director general Dr Elijah Chingosho said the authority was looking forward to working with the general aviation industry and other stakeholders to ensure that they were able to deliver on their mandate.