High Court suspends decision to ground Air Namibia

Mack Air (MKB, Maun) is planning to enter Botswana's scheduled passenger services market and would have done so earlier this year had it not been for the COVID-19 crisis.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB), Modipe Chris Nkwe, told the Sunday Standard newspaper last week that Mack Air, a privately-owned charter specialist, was licensed in late 2019 to carry out scheduled flights between Maun, near the Okavango Delta, and Windhoek Int'l in Namibia and between Kasane, in Botswana's extreme northeast, and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, MackAir would have launched the 3x weekly flights using Cessna (single turboprop) 208B EX Grand Caravans in April but all have since been postponed indefinitely.

According to the airline, its Desert Express-branded flights came amid significant demand from several key clients looking to offer seamless link safaris between Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Air Namibia (SW, Windhoek Int'l) used to operate the Namibia-Maun route but terminated it in 2016 citing low passenger loads.

Mack Air...

The Transportation Commission of Namibia has suspended Air Namibia's Scheduled Air Services Licence, citing the carrier's finances and doubts it can “provide a safe, satisfactory, and reliable air service,” The Namibian newspaper reported quoting a letter to acting CEO Elia Erastus from commission chairwoman Eldorette Harmse.

She said that the licence would be suspended from 2359L on July 8. The cash-strapped state-owned flag carrier will be given until July 22 to present “evidence of having obtained funding to meet the requirements of the Air Services Acts,” the letter said.

Its licence to operate non-scheduled services will remain valid for the duration of this period to allow it to undertake evacuation and repatriation flights.

Air Namibia needs NAD7 billion Namibian dollars (USD410 million) to survive the current financial year, a sum that includes outstanding debts and leasing payments exceeding NAD5 billion (USD293 million), the newspaper reported last week. Presenting these figures to the country's parliament, finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi said that no decision had been taken to liquidate the airline, as different options to restructure it were...

Air Namibia (SW, Windhoek Int'l) has discontinued all charter flights, including all earlier planned flights to South Africa last week.

The airline made the announcement on June 8, saying charter flights had been discontinued with immediate effect and until further notice, but did not say why. It had planned to fly between Cape Town and Windhoek Int'l, and Windhoek and Johannesburg O.R. Tambo on June 11.

Other flights to the United Kingdom and China are also believed to be cancelled, Namibia’s New Era reported, affecting more than 100 passengers.

Air Namibia has carried out numerous repatriation flights, such as a flight on May 24 between Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, repatriating 96 Namibian nationals. On June 3 it flew from London Heathrow for the first time, on a repatriation flight that also took in Frankfurt Int'l. The flight landed in Namibia on June 4 with 127 passengers.

The carrier said it is continuing with domestic operations, including between Windhoek Eros and Ondangwa, Rundu...

Namibian President Hage Geingob has said that Air Namibia (SW, Windhoek Int'l) should be liquidated since it is not making a profit and requires constant government bailouts.

Answering questions after his state of the nation address on June 5, Geingob said that, “Air Namibia must be liquidated. We have a very serious problem with Air Namibia.”

The president added that given its unprofitability, the airline is in constant need of bailouts from its only shareholder, the Namibian state. “It must be restructured, and if liquidation is the thing, we must do that.”

Air Namibia was initially refused a NAD2 billion Namibian dollar (USD119 million) bailout in October 2019, but after warning it might be forced to cease operations if funding was not forthcoming, the state in December agreed to provide a NAD578 million (USD34 million) loan guarantee, Namibia’s New Era reported, adding that the airline has received a total of NAD8 billion (USD477 million) from the state between 1999 and 2019.

In Namibia’s 2020/21 budget tabled by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi in late May,...