Own Correspondent|The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe has denied reports that the air space has been closed and that their workers had gone on strike.

In a statement released on Tuesday CAAZ said, “Our attention has been drawn to some reports circulating on various media platforms this morning. Our airspace is open and flights are operating as normal.”

However facts on the ground from the country’s main airports point to the fact that the airports were not functioning for the better part of the morning.

In Bulawayo at the JMN Nkomo Airport, a South African Airlink plane which landed at 7.45AM was due to turn back at 8.05AM but did not take off for almost another three hours without a clear explanation given by authorities.

Air Zimbabwe’s only aircraft servicing domestic and regional routes took off from the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare as scheduled for its morning service to Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.

The Boeing 767 200-ER, due to return to Harare to pick up passengers to Johannesburg, was forced to sit on the tarmac in Victoria Falls for nearly two hours from 8.30AM obviously as negotiations with the air traffic controllers continued.

The plane only took off at 10.15AM.

A Fastjet plane due to fly to Johannesburg and an Airlink flight from Harare to Johannesburg appeared to have failed to get clearance for takeoff.

Data from flight-monitoring website FlightRadar24 shows operations began normalizing at Harare Airport way after midday with a Kenyan Airways plane landing in Harare, closely followed by the Air Zimbabwe aircraft.

Below is the information as at 13:30 hours on 26 November 2019.