The aviation sector will take time to recover post COVID-19 but the impact will not be cataclysmic.

These are the thoughts of President of the Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe (TBCZ) and Acting Regional Manager Southern Africa of SAA, Winnie Muchanyuka.

Muchanyuka was speaking with the Head of Corporate Affairs at the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Godfrey Chief Koti, on his podcast, Ultimate Tourism Chat where she encouraged aviation players to use the downtime offered during the pandemic to reflect on effective business models. 

"It is crucial at this time that businesses take this downtime to reflect and check our systems and see how we have been conducting business pre-COVID-19,” explained Muchanyuka. “Are there areas where we can improve? Just to relook at our whole business and see how we improve on efficiency, be innovative and use this time to think outside the hustle and bustle of normal operations.”

Recently, Iata announced a potential revenue loss by carriers in Africa and the Middle East of up to US$23 billion, with an estimated 25 million air travel jobs at risk due to the pandemic.

“Tourism and trade in Zimbabwe have been cut off because the major aviation hub in southern Africa, OR Tambo International Airport, is not operating, which Zimbabwe is dependent on for most of its international air traffic,” said Muchanyuka.

Cargo capacity has been affected as Zimbabwe has to rely heavily on pre-existing scheduled freighter services that are still operational. Before the pandemic, cargo was mainly delivered in the belly hold of scheduled passenger flights.

"We are going to have to cut back on certain operations and costs post-COVID-19 to be able to recover, and that’s inevitable. Businesses, at this time, need to look at how they’re going to market their product and services, and what product and services are going to be critical for companies to get back as quickly as possible and start operations again."

Click the link below to listen to the rest of the podcast.