WINDHOEK – A few years ago one could hardly see Namibian pilots on Air Namibia’s aircraft.
That picture has now changed according to Paul Nakawa, Head of Corporate Communications of Air Namibia, as the airline has made significant progress in developing its own capacity.
“We are particularly impressed with our progress in terms of having invested in not just Namibian pilots, but also pilots from the previously disadvantaged groups”, said Nakawa. Currently Air Namibia has a total of 109 pilots with 21 of them being ad-hoc foreign pilots. The rest, 88 pilots, are all Namibian pilots with 58 from the racially advantaged group and 30 from the racially disadvantaged group.
“It is of course a process to develop your own pilots, and this process takes years but it is a journey we are proudly embarking on and that is why our investment in this area of training has been significant.
It cost approximately N$1 million Namibian dollars to take a pilot through the necessary training, and the training is in different phases from a practical test, simulator examinations and then flying hours,” explained Nakawa.
Asked why the airline still has 21 foreign pilots, Nakawa said having foreign pilots at any airline is not an arrangement out of the norm. National carriers around the world all have foreign pilots. In fact, the norm is that such carriers usually have an average of 30 percent of foreign pilots and most airlines have these pilots to cover for the skills shortage in this area.
According to Nakawa “foreign pilots are also used to phase in new aircraft types, but we are committed to empowering and developing more local pilots as we are planning on reducing the number of foreign pilots systematically.
At the moment we use these foreign pilots on an ad-hoc basis for training our Namibian pilots; taking them through simulator exams and line training, meaning they assist in up-skilling them in transitioning from one fleet to another, to get type-rated on specific aircraft types.
We will of course not do this reduction carelessly, but systematically and with due respect to the requirements of our operations and safety. We currently have a number of interventions underway to systematically reduce the number of foreign pilots.”
To do this the national airline has doubled the output (flight hours) of the local pilots. Last year they averaged 25 hours per month, while currently ERJ pilots are averaging 45 hours, A319 pilots, 60 hours and A330 pilots, 80 hours per month.
The schedules are now established in such a way that local pilots are planned first, foreign pilots are only rostered to fill gaps and they are paid based on actual day of service.
To date Air Namibia has terminated 16 foreign pilots and have 4 on reserve with monthly savings to the company of N$1.1 million, which Nakawa added is a step in the right direction.
“Our strategic focus of being an efficient and reliable airline is now taking shape, because we have made significant improvements in terms of our operational performance, with a substantial reduction in operating costs.
Fuel efficiency reduced with 1.3 percent, while our fuel technology now has a saving of 20 percent due to the introduction of the A330 aircraft.
“Our maintenance costs reduced with 18 percent, while crew costs reduced by 14 percent and we embarking on a number of other initiatives to further increase efficiency.
You would recall that for the very first time in many years, we managed to reduce our losses and therefore we had a smooth transition from the previous to the current financial year,” said Nakawa.
By Staff Reporter