WINDHOEK – Air Namibia has rubbished allegations that it will no longer service its only intercontinental route, saying that, despite some media reports, that there has been no decision to suspend or terminate its Windhoek to Frankfurt route by Cabinet.  

In a recent statement, Air Namibia’s Manager for Corporate Communications Paulus Nakawa noted that the national airline shall continue to operate the Windhoek to Frankfurt to Windhoek route as per the published schedule for the foreseeable future.  

“Air Namibia’s Windhoek – Frankfurt – Windhoek route has attracted media attention and featured in public discourse after media reports suggesting that Cabinet took a decision for the route to be discontinued due to its financial viability. We would like to put some matters into perspective regarding the Namibian national airline’s only intercontinental route, by stating the facts,” reads Nakawa’s statement.    

The Air Namibia spokesman pointed out that Air Namibia’s Board of Directors and Management, together with consultants recently appointed by the shareholder, are engaged in a process of re-evaluating the strategy and supporting Air Namibia’s business model that will ensure sustainability of the national airline as a going concern. 

“The objective of this exercise is to identify opportunities to improve financial performance, enhance efficiency and reduce costs across the airline’s entire route network, including the Frankfurt route mentioned herein,” Nakawa continued.   

Air Namibia also recently announced that it would restore the frequencies of some of the flights that were suspended in early June this year. The restoration of these frequencies was effective from July 01 and came about as a result of one of the airline’s A319s aircraft having completed its maintenance checks. 
Since June 03 Air Namibia’s regional flight frequencies on the Windhoek to Johannesburg route had been one rotation per day (seven rotations per week) but had been restored to the usual 14 rotations on this route.  

The airline however maintained two flights per day to Cape Town, while flights to Luanda in Angola remained suspended until further notice. Another of the airline’s aircraft, the A319-100, which was undergoing a heavy maintenance check in Cyprus, was ferried to Johannesburg for final maintenance checks and was expected to re-enter service a week thereafter.

Air Namibia was forced to suspend a number of regional flights due to the unavailability of three of its four Airbus A319-100 planes. It resulted in the airline temporarily suspending flights between Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek and Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Luanda and also the number of flights between Windhoek and OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg from three to one per day, while the number of flights to Cape Town International Airport were reduced from three to two per day.