The airlines left. Etihad just decided to come back. And here is why.
Etihad Airways announced it will launch three weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and Harare from March 2027, a new route it has never served before. This move signals a commercial judgement on a market that has seen many carriers leave over the past two decades.
Etihad Airways is launching three weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and Harare from March 2027, a route it has never flown before. In 1999, 34 airlines flew to Zimbabwe, but many left due to economic crisis and repatriation risks. By 2007-2009, only eight airlines remained. Recovery began after dollarisation in 2009, and by the mid-2010s, 15 airlines operated in Zimbabwe. A new international terminal at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport was opened in July 2023, funded by a US$153 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China. The expansion doubled the airport's annual passenger handling capacity to six million.
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