- Got really lucky, here. - Hey, what's happening? - Hey, aloha. (energetic, contemplative music) Huge bok choy, here. (energetic, contemplative music) (aeroplane engines whirring) I'm at the Air Zimbabwe transfer desk. We arrived so late on the flight, but Renier here, he took over. He looked after me. He tried to check me in, so
now I made it on my next flight to Air Zimbabwe to Harare. Thank you so much, Renier. - No prob, thank you. - Well, I'm on this
remote bus going to board on the Air Zimbabwe flight together with a full load of bus crowd today. After flying Qantas to South Africa, I jump on that opportunity to fly on the Air Zimbabwe to Harare. This Boeing 767-200,
named after Victoria Falls is 29 years old, delivered
from Boeing new in 1989. You know, I came all
this way from Australia, from Sydney, just to fly Air Zimbabwe now. What do you say? - Congratulations! - Yay! Very happy, thank you. - Cheers! - Cheers. I love adventures, and I've been so excited
about flying Air Zimbabwe. Air Zimbabwe's 767-200 is in
a two-class configuration, which 30 business class
seats and 167 economy seats. (energetic, contemplative music) I just settled down on the flight, waiting for other people
to board right now. So at this point, ground
security came on board and had some words with me. The flight attendant, obviously not used to an African filming around
and had raised concern. I was told to stop or leave the aeroplane, so I became careful and discrete. I moved to an empty middle
row and settled down. We departed on time
with a quick climb out. No seat-back entertainment,
no music, no lights. Everything is broken. The seat cover was
probably from 29 years ago. After takeoff, a full round of
drinks and dinner was served, which was really good for the
one-and-a-half-hour flight. I had further chats with the crew and explained why I was filming. I'm glad that now we made friends. I've met these very friendly Air Zimbabwe flight attendants and-- - Yeah. - Nambia? - Yeah, Yasinta. - From Marange.
- And you are Shona. - From Shona.
- Shona. - And you are? - I'm Ndebele from Matabeleland. - Wow. This is the first time I'm
actually meeting you all. It's the first time going to
Harare, so it's all new to me. I need to go home and study
a little bit more about this. - Yeah. You'll enjoy it. - What are your names? Tell me your names. - My name is Yasinta. - Ya-sin-ta. - Yes. - Yasinta, and? - I'm Arnold. - I'm Sica.
- Arnold. - Yes, Arnold. - And? - I'm Sica. - See-kuh.
- Yeah. - Very cool. How long have you guys
worked for Air Zimbabwe? - 10 years. - Cool! - 14 years. - 14? - 14. - You look like Kobe Bryant. You look like a basketballer, you know? (all laughing) - And how long? - 27. - 27.
- How old you are? Oh 27 years!
- Yes! (laughs) - For landing, I moved
to a spare window seat. (engine sputtering and whirring) - Welcome to Harare. My name is Buyan. - Buyan? That's awesome. You like Air Zimbabwe. You told me you enjoy Air Zimbabwe more than the other airline. - Air Zimbabwe is actually the best. They're affordable, and
the food is very nice, and the staff is pleasant. So fly Air Zim. Promote Air Zimbabwe. Don't fly any other. - Oh, fly Air Zimbabwe, very good. Because you like the 767, yeah? - The 767 is a very great plane. - Same here, I like 767. I like the food too. - And the food? - Oh yeah. I was very grateful of the flight. It is the pure enjoyment
of aviation for me. Air Zimbabwe is an experience of its own. Bye! - Bye! - The next morning, I went back
to the airport at 5:00 a.m. to buy tickets to fly on the
Air Zim 737-200 to Bulawayo. It departs at 7:00 a.m. This is Miss Lucky here. She was helping me to buy the ticket so I can now finally fly the 737. It's been a dream for many years. Can you not believe how
happy I am right now? This is five o'clock at Harare
at the ticket office here. I like this bit, here. We are totally engaged,
actually moving with speed. Air Zimbabwe 737-200 is also one of the last remaining
737-200 in the world, so this is gonna be really exciting. There's a separate terminal
for domestic flights. Check-in was simple, but due to my short 30-minute turnaround in Bulawayo back on the same plane, the staff was able to call
the station manager there to inform him about my situation. I was sorted. There's a domestic lounge, and I was let in to have a quick look. It was really basic. Boarding was on-time at 6:45
a.m. for a 7:00 a.m. departure. (aeroplane engines roaring) After entering the plane,
I was pleasantly surprised. There are business class seats. I settled in row five, the
second row in the economy class. Air Zim 737 can seat 105
passengers in two class layouts. (energetic, contemplative music) So it's 6:45, on-time boarding. This is what a 737 inside looks like. - [Pilot Over P.A.] Above your head. This mask on your face... (engine revving) (engine roaring) - Flight time to Bulawayo
is just 30 minutes. There was a sandwich and
drink service free of charge, better than many airlines out there. (energetic, contemplative music) I just met George. You were born in Bulawayo. - Born in Bulawayo. - Oh, so you lived in
Zimbabwe most of your life? - Most of my life. - And now, there's a campaign; fly four times, get one free trip. - Yes. - So how many free trips do you have now? - I've got two. - They owe you two trips, so far. - Owe me two, yes. - Okay, Air Zimbabwe, if
you're watching this video, George earned two free
trips from you guys. - And I'll have another two
by the end of the month. - Oh, awesome. You flew this plane a
hundred times, right? - Probably, yes. - Yeah. - I fly twice a week. - You know people like me,
I'm really, really excited to fly just once, and you
allegedly flew a hundred times. The Monday morning flight
was barely 50% full. I moved to the back for landing. (engine roaring) - Hey! - How's it? - How are you? - Fine, thanks. (energetic, contemplative music) - When I arrived in
Bulawayo, I quickly went to the check-in counter and back to the boarding gates, all
within several minutes. (engine whirring) (energetic, contemplative music) This time, I was sitting 16-A. The flight wasn't full again. (engine roaring) The same sandwich was served, but no complaint getting free food on the half-an-hour flight. After 20 minutes cruising,
we started our descent. (engine roaring) (energetic, contemplative music) - [Pilot Over P.A.] Welcome to Harare International Airport... - Well, so I just landed
back at the airport. In fact, we arrived like 20 minutes early, so everyone says Air
Zimbabwe's no tourist, delay and everything, but
I had a good experience. Maybe I was just very lucky, but the flights are very, very
on-time and very enjoyable. It brought back lots of beautiful memories flying the 737 classic. I went back to the hotel after two wonderful Air Zimbabwe
flights that morning. I arrived late the night before, so that morning was my
first time seeing Harare. It certainly has a lot of
colonial legacy around, but it seems a bit run-down, as well. I stayed at the Meikles Hotel, which is a five-star hotel in Harare. My room overlooked the a beautiful park and all the blooming jacaranda trees. (energetic, contemplative music) The well-maintained room
and luxury in the hotel may be quite a stark
contrast to what's outside of the hotel. There were lots of unemployed
people on the streets. The infrastructure was lacking. There was cholera outbreak. The country's constantly
low on fuel and food supply. The roads were so terrible
and grossly under-maintained since a long time ago. There were potholes everywhere. Driving was also horrible
during the peak hours, with almost no traffic routes. What a pity that Zimbabwe's
on such long-term decline. The country was once the
proud breadbasket of Africa. - It's 75, so... - So now, I'm holding the
new money of Zimbabwe. It's called a bond note. The Central Bank of Zimbabwe
guaranteed one U.S. dollar to one bond note, so if
this is two U.S. dollars, the official exchange
rate is two bond notes. But this is not the case in
unofficial exchange rates, so today I've just changed money. I've changed, let's say, 100 U.S dollars. 100 U.S. dollars actually
got 180 bond notes, so I can take that 180 bond
notes to buy an air ticket worth $180, but essentially,
I only paid 100 U.S. So do the math, this
is an unbeatable value. Come to Zimbabwe to fly,
and you'll pay much less. Hi, how are you? Oh yeah, I like that, cool! - Hi! - I love your hair, by the way. So cool. - Thank you. - You know, Asians can
not never make this. - Ohamba is (speaking foreign language) - (speaking foreign language) - Did you say something bad about me? - We are on video, right? - Yeah, of course. - Okay, say hello too much. We are the best country and
the best airlines in the world. - Let's see after the flight. We're lucky that there's
no seat neighbour. So this is that "you feel good" beer. (energetic, contemplative music)
