Air Namibia's new planes

 According to AllAfrica.com, Namibia’s flag carrier will retire its old Airbus A340-300 plane and receive the first of two Airbus A330-200s at the end of the month. The second aircraft should arrive in November.

Air Namibia is leasing two brand new A330s, which are expected to reduce costs and boost revenue.

"This decision fits well with our efforts to continually strive to improve operational efficiency, as we align the services of the airline with the needs of the market, match and exceed competitor offerings, and achieve acceptable financial performance with the resources that are available to us and which we strive towards at all times," said Paulus Nakawa, Air Namibia's head of corporate communications.

The new planes are fitted with 30 Business Class seats and 214 Economy Class seats, for a total of 244 seats. The soon to be phased out A340s have 278 seats in total, comprising 32 in Business and 246 in Economy.

The airline said that while larger aircraft have a lower cost per seat, all the seats must be sold for this low-cost benefit to be realised. The current average passenger load per year on the Windhoek-Frankfurt route is 220 passengers, meaning that full value of the cost per seat is not being realised as some seats go unoccupied.

The Airbus A330-200 is said to be a more flexible aircraft for new routes, while also offering modern and mature aviation technology.
 

"The new Airbus A330-200s will break the long history of Air Namibia operating quad powered aircraft (four engines) with twin-powered aircraft on its long-haul operations between Namibia and Europe. These planes come with improved operating technologies which offer way much better savings on operating costs," Nakawa said

Air Namibia to fly daily to Luanda

Air Namibia will increase the frequency of its flights between Windhoek, Namibia, and Luanda, Angola, to meet the rising demand for seats on this route.

From 6 August, the national air carrier will introduce one additional flight per week on the route – on Tuesdays – to bring to seven the total number of flights operated by Air Namibia between Windhoek and Luanda.

The additional flight will be operated using the Airbus A319-100 fleet, and will operate at the same flight timings as the current six flights. The plane will depart Windhoek at 08h50 and land in Luanda at 11h15; the return flight will leave Luanda at 12h15 and arrive in Windhoek at 14h35.

The airline launched its service between Luanda and Windhoek in May 1991, with a frequency of one flight a week on Sundays. The operation was interrupted and then halted during 1992 as a result of the civil war in Angola, and resumed in 1995. Since then the Luanda route has seen a steady growth in passenger numbers and as a result an increase in the frequency of flights.

Air Namibia Cancels Gaborone Route

According to southerntimesafrica, Air Namibia has suspended its flights to Gaborone in Botswana, due to low passenger volumes.
The Namibian national carrier introduced the route a year ago and initially operated three flights a week, before the flight schedule changed to include a fourth flight, when Air Namibia re-arranged its network.
Air Namibia General Manager Commercial Services Xavier Masule recently revealed that there is limited traffic on the route, and although they had frequent flyers, the levels were not sufficient.
 “We captured 86% market share, but this translates to a load factor of 35%, meaning that even if we had 100% market share, we would still have a load factor of less than 45%,” he said.
 According to Masule, for Air Namibia to break even at 50% load factor, they would need to increase fares by 106%. But, he also warned that fares are already too high to even consider increasing, given that passengers have the option of competitors via Johannesburg.
Air Namibia will, however, continue the Maun route, which they say is critical for the transportation of tourists from Botswana and Namibia.

New Flights for Air Namibia

From May, Air Namibia will be flying from Cape Town, South Africa via Windhoek, to the following African destinations: Harare, Zimbabwe; Gaborone, Botswana and Ondjiva, Angola.

All of these new flights are also available from Johannesburg. The airline is also running specials on flights from Cape Town to Accra, Ghana; Lusaka, Zambia; Windhoek and Walvis Bay, Namibia; Luanda, Angola; Maun, Botswana; Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and Frankfurt, Germany.

Air Namibia Agent Special Air Namibia Agent Special

Air Namibia have announced that over the next two months there will be an additional 1% BSP commission over and above the current 7.01% Domestic/Regional and 7.0% International commissions rates.

The additional 1% BSP commission commenced on 1 February and will apply to all new bookings made from that date until 31 March. This commission is based on all published fares on the BSP billing point of sale of the following countries: BSP ZA – South Africa and Namibia; BSP BW – Botswana; BSP ZM – Zambia.

Upon ticketing, the commission should reflect automatically 8.01% BSP commission for domestic and regional tickets and 8% BSP commission for international tickets. All GDS are now updated or soon to be updated. For more information please contact your local Air Namibia Sale Manager.