It seems that the Egyptian Ambassador in Nigeria has a humble idea about airline business.
The fifth freedom of air is about flights carrying commercial traffic (passengers and cargo) between two foreign countries. Obviously, the fifth freedom is the problem facing EgyptAir in case of carrying passengers between Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The fifth freedom of air has to be granted by the two foreign countries. In fact, bilateral air service agreements are negotiated between civil aviation authorities of the countries concerned. So, the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority has to negotiate the fifth freedom of air with both Tanzania and Zimbabwe for EgyptAir flights to utilize carrying passengers between those two specific countries.
It is very strange that EgyptAir did not prepare itself for that situation. Was EgyptAir trying to operate illegally between Tanzania and Zimbabwe? Anyway, the solution of the fifth air freedom cannot be finalized in Zimbabwe only. However, Zimbabwe might be able to incentivize EgyptAir to stay through some mechanism other than the fifth freedom of air.
Date: 01 November 2014 commenting on http://www.newzimbabwe.com/