Govt mulls Charles Prince Airport upgrade Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza tours Charles Prince Airport in the company of the Airport Manager Mr Edmore Murungweni (foreground, left) in Harare yesterday. — Picture: Believe Nyakudjara

Victor Maphosa Herald Reporter
Government is considering upgrading Charles Prince Airport in Harare under the Airport Development Master Plan, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza has said.

He said airports were important in building a nation’s economy, hence the need to keep them up to standard.

Minister Matiza made the remarks on the sidelines of a familiarisation tour at Charles Prince Airport yesterday.

“The tour was meant to see the state of our airport here and what is needed to be done to upgrade it. I have been told of various challenges it is facing. There is need for an upgrade of this place,” he said.

“Government has an Airport Development Master Plan which is aimed at developing and upgrading airports and Charles Prince will benefit from that. The airport has potential to bring in revenue and we need to harness that potential.

“As we speak, in Harare we have two airports now, the Robert Gabriel Mugabe Airport and Charles Prince. Charles Prince will take care of Low Cost Carriers while RGM will take the heavy equipment.”

He said what is also important is that the airport is strategically located given that the new city will be built in Mt Hampden.

“The airport is strategically located, it is near the farmers and the new city and there are industries growing rapidly nearby so it should take care of all that. It will also be used by Members of Parliament when they start using the new parliament to fly to various                                         destinations.

“Not only that, but the new city is going to be habited by businesspeople, international businesspeople. The majority of the diplomatic community will shift their offices to the new city. So we need to look into the future, it is going to be one of the biggest airports and we look forward to extending the runways to 3 kilometres.”

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