Harare — Qantas Airways has told travel agents in Zimbabwe to stop selling tickets for its flights after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned it was getting harder to move funds out of the country, according to a circular sent by the Australian airline to agencies and seen by Bloomberg. The carrier is owed a "substantial" amount by Bank Settlement Plan Zimbabwe, the system that IATA uses to transfer local ticket revenue to airlines, according to the circular from Michi Messner, Qantas’s regional manager for Africa. "We’ve been advised by Iata that the situation with the repatriation of funds out of Zimbabwe is worsening," she wrote. Messner confirmed by phone from Johannesburg on Tuesday she had sent the letter, referring further questions to IATA. The industry body would not immediately comment. The move is an early sign airlines are scaling back operations in the southern African country, which is battling a shortage of bank notes that has forced lenders to ca...
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