Air Namibia (Windhoek International) is looking to boost its Angolan market presence with the launch of multiple new point-to-point services in the country.

The New Era newspaper reports the carrier has sought diplomatic assistance from the Namibian government to engage their counterparts in Luanda to grant Air Namibia rights to serve the secondary Angolan towns of Ongiva, Lubango, Namibe, and Benguela from Windhoek International. The carrier is currently restricted to a 4x weekly return service to Luanda 4 De Fevereiro.

"Air Namibia is still waiting for an official response from the Namibian and Angolan governments regarding the matter. If the request was approved, the Namibian government is yet to brief Air Namibia on the developments," airline spokesman Paul Nakawa said adding that flights would commence in late October if the green light is given.

At present, commercial passenger flights into and out of Angola are routed through the capital, Luanda, with only Lubango connected to Windhoek via a 2x weekly TAAG Angola Airlines-operated service.

Neither Angola nor Namibia was a signatory of January's Solemn Commitment to implement Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) protocols as enshrined in the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision (YD). As such, the two states are bound by the terms of their existing bilateral air services agreement which Luanda could choose to enforce given plans to improve domestic Angolan connectivity, as well as ailing TAAG Angola Airlines' operations, through the recent launch of Air Connection Express (Luanda 4 De Fevereiro). Unveiled earlier this month, Air Connection Express is based on a consortium of Angolan carriers whose largest shareholder is TAAG. Its overall objective is to improve domestic Angolan connectivity while providing TAAG with local feed both into and out of the country.

For its part, Air Namibia has been seeking out fresh markets given the dramatic increase in competition it has seen on all fronts following the Namibian government's decision to open up the country to more foreign carriers.