(Posted 19th August 2023)
Airlink apologises to customers for the delays and inconvenience experienced arriving at and departing from Windhoek’s Hosea Kutako International Airport today.
We are alert to the situation at the airport where all operations are being affected. They follow the eviction of ground handling company, Menzies, and its overnight replacement by Paragon, a new service provider.
While the delays are beyond Airlink’s control, to avoid bottlenecks and minimise delays, today we deployed a team of personnel from Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town in addition to our Windhoek staff to ensure our flights to and from the Namibian capital were not disrupted.
Airlink operates up to four flights a day between Johannesburg and Windhoek and up to three a day between Cape Town and Windhoek.
We anticipate further teething issues as Paragon becomes fully resourced and equipped to deliver all of the services it has assumed. These include passenger check-in, boarding and disembarkation of flights, security on the aircraft parking apron, baggage handling, cleaning and provisioning of flights.
Affected ticketholders, meeters and greeters should visit www.flyairlink.com or Airlink’s social media channels for updated information and advice.
This situation developed, adds ATCNews, as a new service provider, clearly very unprepared, was pushed into place of one of the global ground handling giants, Menzies, and wild allegations have been flying around, leaving the Namibian airport operator NAC with egg all over their faces.
While Menzies has filed an urgent court application on Friday, has court, despite the urgency of the matter seen it fit to to postpone the hearing until Monday, also raising questions why a matter of such vital importance should not be heard and decided, again leading to speculation what role the court and assigned judge are playing in this murky affair.
ATCNews will on Monday report how the court session is evolving, to keep readers informed.
Meanwhile has the hard pressed national airport company of Namibia issued a lengthy statement, seen by many pundits as an attempt to whitewash the situation and absolve themselves of blame, while Menzies has refrained from doing the same as the matter is before court, aka sub judice:
Added information received also suggested that more airlines have suffered similar fallout as a result of the lack of preparation of the newly assigned ground handler named Paragon, leaving more questions than giving answers why an airport company should be party to let such a situation develop, clearly displaying contempt for their customers, i.e. the airlines and passengers now affected by this disastrous situation.
