By Albertina Nakale
WINDHOEK – Members of parliament yesterday rapped Works and Transport Minister Erkki Nghimtina over the knuckles following Tuesday’s downgrading of Hosea Kutako International Airport, a development that could inevitably hit the Namibian economy hard.
Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) MPs Heikko Lucks and Jesaya Nyamu wanted to know how government, and particularly the ministry of works, allowed a situation where Hosea Kutako lost its former grading.
Namibia was caught off guard when its biggest airport, following a routine audit, was abruptly downgraded from Category 9 to Category 5 on Tuesday.
The Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA) conducted the audit on Monday.
Consequently, an Air Namibia plane flying from Frankfurt, Germany on Wednesday had to land in Botswana after the flight crew was informed that the aircraft – the intercontinental Airbus A330-200 – could not land at Hosea Kutako because of the airport’s regrading.
The DCA audit found that two of the airport’s three firefighting trucks were dysfunctional, leading to the costly downgrade.Air Namibia’s Airbus A330-200 long-haul aircraft require a Category 8 airport for landing and take-off, the airline explained.
“It is expected that Namibia Airports Company will execute and rectify the respective shortcomings, which will result in the international airport being upgraded to Category 9 in timely fashion,” Air Namibia said in a statement.
Yesterday RDP’s Lucks asked Nghimtina how this “damaging situation” could have arisen under the minister’s watchful eye.
“We had a mock auditing and everything was perfect. But when the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) team came to audit Hosea Kutako two of the three firefighting trucks had problems which we unsuccessfully tried to repair,” Nghimtina replied.
Following the diversion of its flight to Botswana, Air Namibia yesterday sent two smaller aircraft to Gaborone to pick up passengers who were travelling from Frankfurt to Windhoek on Wednesday.
The RDP’s Nyamu, a former trade and industry minister, asked if Hosea Kutako remained operational in light of the downgrading. “Big planes such as A319 and A330 cannot make use of this airport. But those smaller than that can make use of the airport,” the minister explained.
Speaking to New Era earlier yesterday, an unimpressed Nghimtina blamed the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) for the downgrading.
“Two firefighter trucks were found dysfunctional and I can only attribute this to people not being serious with their jobs.”
Nghimtina said there is a lot going on at the NAC at the moment and he refused to rule out that the company spent much of its time on irrelevant matters at the expense of security requirements at the airport.
“There’s an element of greediness over tenders and money. Such things could have an influence on what is happening now.”
The NAC yesterday issued a statement, saying: “As a result of the audit findings, the NAC has 15 days to address the issues that were identified as critical by ICAO.
“Furthermore, we would also like to inform that NAC procured eleven fire trucks through a public tender of which the first delivery was made on 23 July 2014. The training on the operation of the new fire trucks will commence on Monday 28 July 2014 and shall run for a period of four days whereafter the new truck will be commissioned into operation by 1 August 2014.”
A Namibian passenger who was aboard Wednesday’s diverted flight from Frankfurt said passengers were worried by news of landing in Botswana, as no explanation was offered on why the aircraft would not land in Windhoek as originally planned.
“When we took our seats on the plane in Germany, the captain announced that – depending on the situation – we might have to land in Botswana, but he did not offer further details,” the passenger said.
“The captain is in the cabin and we could therefore not ask him to explain, but the air hostesses who served us said they did not know what was going on. It really created fear and speculation among passengers.”
The latest developments are expected to hit the country’s economy hard, including the tourism industry.
Speaking to New Era yesterday a British Airways official who refused to be named, said the airline is now severely affected because it will not be allowed to land bigger planes.
“It is a problem because on Friday (today) our flight is departing at 13h55. So we need to get permission from our operations in Johannesburg to make special arrangements timeously so that all our passengers can fly on time. If there is no arrangement made, most of our passengers will be stranded at the airport,” the official said.
DCA’s Director Angeline Simana-Paulo yesterday referred New Era to Section 9 of the ICAO, whose provisions the NAC failed to meet.
The section states that “all rescue and firefighting personnel shall be properly trained to perform their duties in an efficient manner and shall participate in live fire drills commensurate with the types of aircraft and type of firefighting equipment in use at their aerodrome, including pressure-fed fuel fires.”
Simana-Paulo said: “Hosea Kutako offers services to international flights and it depends on the ICAO set standards. Kutako is an international airport and it must comply with civil aviation’s international standards.”
South African Airways and Angola’s TAAG both confirmed yesterday that their flights would continue as scheduled because they are using smaller aircraft that a Category 5 airport can lawfully handle.