AIR NAMIBIA IS UNDERGOING RESTRUCTURING BUT WILL REMAIN IN THE SKIES
(Posted 12th August 2019)
Air Namibia has vehemently refuted media reports that the company was, as one publication put it, on ‘Death Row‘ and released the statement shown above.
What ATCNews could establish though was that the airline was trying to shed their leases on wide body A330 aircraft, it has acquired some time ago to replace the ageing A340’s used then for long haul flights.
The A330’s joined the Air Namibia fleet in 2013 but competition on long haul sectors, as a result of more international airlines flying into Windhoek, has intensified to a point that the local airline had challenges to keep the routes viable.
It is understood that Air Namibia is in discussions with lessor Castlelake to terminate the leases for the two A330’s which would otherwise run until 2025.
A source in South Africa suggested that presently only the routes from Windhoek to Victoria Falls and from Windhoek to Durban in South Africa were making money, leaving open questions about the size of the airline’s fleet which includes several Airbus A319’s.
The airline and the Namibian government is also in negotiations over a long running dispute with Belgium’s Challenge Air over a 25 million Euro award to that airline.
