I always wanted to fly on Air Zimbabwe as they have an interesting and classic fleet such as B737-200, B767-200 and MA-60. Finally I got the chance to go to Zimbabwe (to fly on their B737-200 internally). I have a choice of flying South African Airways, Comair (British Airways), Fastjet and Air Zimbabwe between Johannesburg and Harare. Of course as an AvGeek, I chose the most exciting and most reliable option! 😉
I bought my ticket on-line with Air Zimbabwe website. Most people have problem with their credit card on their site but mine worked as a surprise. I received email confirmation of my ticket the next morning.
Air Zimbabwe flight UM462 to Harare departs from Johannesburg in the evening. The B767-200 arrived at Johannesburg in mid morning from Harare and then it flies to Bulawayo from Johannesburg (4 times a week) before operating the daily evening flight back to Harare.
Air Zimbabwe currently only have 1 B737-200 and 1 B767-200 in active service. The B737-200 is mainly operating domestic services while the sole B767-200 flies to South Africa.
Remote boarding on "Victoria Falls" Air Zimbabwe B767-200 (Reg Z-WPE). I love this classic rainbow scheme over their new euro white livery!
There are 30 Business Class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. These seats were not up for sale on their website booking for some reasons. There were just 2 passengers sitting in J class on this flight. The seat cushion looked fairly classic, perhaps they were never changed since the plane was delivered new from Boeing in 1989.
There were about 170 economy class seat in 2 separate cabins. A smaller economy cabin right after Business Class then a large single cabin all the way to the rear.
The flight was about only half full but I couldn't secure a window seat prior, so I settled in the middle row with all 3 seats to myself. The cabin was extremely warm as there were no air conditioning on the ground until the engine started on the taxiway.
After a quick climb out of Johannesburg, a hot dinner was served on the 1 hour 17 minutes flight to Harare. There were a choice of beef and chicken. The meal was excellent in my opinion. 2 separate rounds of drinks service were offered as well.
The only in-flight entertainment was flick through the dated on-board magazine and looking at the safety card or listening to the Pratt&Whitney 4000 engine sounds.
As I was the one of very few foreign looking passengers, the crew were nice and curious about me from the beginning of the flight.
I was taking a lot of picture and video during the boarding and this alerted the crew as they were unfamiliar with it. They called the ground security at Johannesburg and I was told to stop or leave the plane. They mentioned Air Zimbabwe forbids photography inside their plane.
Once the meal service finished, I went to the galley and explained to them my reasons of photos and videos. They were much more relaxed after the service and was about to chat longer with me. They were friendly and courteous. The gentleman in the middle even managed to find me a window seat for landing!
I have an excellent Boeing 767 classic flight with Air Zimbabwe. They're really old school and felt like traveled back in time 20+ years but it was the beautiful flying memory and moment counts!
We arrived Harare ahead of schedule. I am ready for my next flight adventure on the Air Zimbabwe B737-200 classic the next day!