Zimbabwe's national airline has been forced to suspend some domestic and international flights as a fuel crisis bites, state media reported on Thursday. The southern African nation is grappling with its worst fuel crisis in years with petrol stations remaining dry for weeks, forcing many urban commuters to walk to and from work. The crisis has also hit production in the manufacturing sector and slowed annual tobacco deliveries.
"Some flights were suspended while some are operational as usual," the official Herald newspaper quoted Air Zimbabwe spokesman David Mwenga as saying. He did not give details on the suspended flights.
The Herald quoted an official at the national carrier as saying the cancelled flights included those to the resort town of Victoria Falls, South Africa and London.
It said a London-bound flight was delayed on Wednesday for nearly seven hours as "officials ran around to find the scarce commodity". Airline officials were not immediately available for comment. Zimbabwe requires 2.5 million litres of diesel and 2 million litres of fuel every day, but imports have been erratic since 1999 amid foreign currency shortages due to poor exports.
The fuel woes have exacerbated an economic crisis with food shortages, record unemployment and one of the highest rates of inflation in the world.
A spokesman for President Robert Mugabe has said the government was seeking credit lines from South African and Asian allies to revive the economy as Western donors withhold aid.
Mugabe, 81, and in power since the former British colony gained independence in 1980, denies he has run down the economy.
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