The Namibian government has agreed to provide NAD500 million Namibian dollars (USD35 million) in loans to Air Namibia (Windhoek International), local media quoted the carrier's spokesperson Paul Nakawa as saying. The support from its sole shareholder should enable the airline to conduct repairs on five of its fleet of ten aircraft, Nakawa added.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, one of Air Namibia's three A319-100s and two of its four E135ERs are currently inactive.

“We have agreed to provide a guarantee for them to raise NAD578 million (USD40.7 million). This is basically a bridging facility until we discuss the matter in the Cabinet early next year. A full bailout will require much more than that,” said Minister of Public Enterprises Leon Jooste.

Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein also confirmed that loan facilities had been opened for the state-owned carrier.

However, Escher Luanda, Air Namibia's chairman since September, was more guarded about the developments, telling New Era newspaper that it was “premature to comment” and that “the airline's communications department will issue a statement on the shareholder's assistance in the coming days”.

In October, the government rejected the airline's request for a NAD2 billion (USD140 million) bailout, with Schlettwein commenting at the time, during a midterm budget review, that disbursing more funds to it would be a waste of resources given the carrier's lack of profitability. Air Namibia received more than NAD8 billion (USD564 million) from the state between 1999 and 2019.

The latest news comes in the same week Air Namibia revealed that all litigation matters between it and the estate of defunct Belgian carrier Challengair (Brussels National) had been “amicably resolved”, ending a dispute over a failed wet-lease agreement dating back to 1998.