Air Namibia (Windhoek International) has warned it may suspend flights from Windhoek Eros Airport given concerns about the state of the airfield's 1,983x30 metre runway 01/19.

In a letter to the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) seen by The Patriot newspaper, the carrier's acting managing director, Mandi Samson, said Air Namibia's Quality & Safety divisions had recommended suspending E135-operated flights out of the downtown Windhoek airport to Mpacha, Ondangwa, and Rundu.

“Air Namibia is seriously concerned about the condition of the runway at Eros Airport, to such an extent that we have come to the point we shall for safety reasons need to suspend our flight operations from this airport until the proposed reconstruction of the runway is completed,” she said.

Airline spokesman Paul Nakawa said in a statement that while it was confident that Eros's runway would be rehabilitated as a matter of urgency, in the event it isn't, Air Namibia would, in the interests of safety, have to move all its domestic flights to Windhoek International Hosea Kutako International Airport (HKIA).

The Executive Director of the Namibian Ministry of Works and Transport, Willem Goeiemann, told The Patriot in a separate statement that work on the runway will only commence during the next financial year i.e. April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020.

“There is money budgeted for it but consultations, technical issues and submissions to the Central Procurement Board have caused a delay. So all this will only be finalized in the next financial year,” said Goeiemann.

The overall cost of the upgrade work is estimated to cost NAD543 million Namibian dollars (USD38.9 million).