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When it comes to going to Europe, Asia, Arab Continent or even some of the major African destinations, there are uncountable options to choose from. Direct, indirect or connecting journeys are popular and cheaper to take especially for flights to Far East and Australia. However, Harare Zimbabwe is one destination that is only being served by one Direct Flight, the flagship carrier Air Zimbabwe.

Air Zimbabwe, although reckoned as a 3 star airline, is the first choice for family travelers, business travels and also bag packers as the prices as well as total air journey time are reasonable. The high demand rate has its drawbacks too. It is obvious that due to lack of options and choices Travelers have to face a whole lot of problems, when the “twice a week” flight gets full, they have no other choice but to pay big some and find alternatives that take more than 12 hours to get them to Zimbabwe. This also tells as that in case if this airline is grounded or stops operating due to lack of funds or whatsoever issues, it will be a nightmare for many Zimbabweans and will make air travel difficult and expensive once more. Hence, to keep the airline alive, the costs of the tickets had to be raised in order to meet the expenses.

Air Zimbabwe says that aid spiraling costs had forced it to increase ticket prices on all domestic and international routes. And we have to admit that airline industry is not alone in getting effected by price hikes and inflation in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, the worst since independence in 1980, pushed inflation to over 1,000% last year. Zimbabwe is a country in constant battle with crises such as poverty, inflation, and poor living standards. According to some reports published last year the life expectancy of men is 37 and women 34 years which is an alarming rate. The country also faces high dependency on food aid, with 20% adult HIV prevalence, shortages of basic food stuffs, high unemployment and ever increased Inflation. When the country’s central bank said in 2006 that it would not continue to support Air Zimbabwe and other money-losing state companies, a spokesman for the airline, David Mwenga, stated that it had little choice but to increase fares.

"The goods and services we use everyday have been going up by at least 150% every month so we had no option but to review our fares upwards," further, "Prices are literally going up every time you wake up."

He said the airline was only generating 30% of its revenue in hard currency. Although the official inflation rate stands at 1,000%, independent finance experts have estimated that the actual rate stands closer to 4,000%. Nowadays, a return trip between London and Harare costs between 500 to 750 GBP depending on month of travel.

The only way to keep tickets from getting affected by inflation is to keep investing and keep trusting in the air line. If the travelers will continue to support the only airline that has served them with Cheapest Direct flights to Harare throughout the past years and accepted the challenges laid in its way, there is no doubt that Air Zimbabwe will emerge as a successful airline in no time. For more details on cheap flights to Harare see Cheap Flights to Zimbabwe