Abstract
- FlyNamibia plans to launch new routes to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Angola, increasing its regional locations and growing tourism connectivity in Southern Africa.
- The airline can even improve its fleet by means of Westair Aviation and expects to introduce flights to Luanda within the close to future.
- Namibia Airports Firm goals to boost connectivity and entice extra airways to the nation, with plans to broaden routes in Southern Africa, in addition to discover connections to Europe, the Center East, and doubtlessly america and the Far East.
Namibia’s solely energetic scheduled service, FlyNamibia, has introduced plans to launch three new regional locations from Windhoek Hosea Kutako Worldwide Airport (WDH). The airline’s Managing Director, Andre Compion, disclosed this on the AviaDev Perception Africa podcast. The enlargement additionally aligns with the Namibia Airports Firm’s ambitions to boost regional connectivity.
Increasing horizons
FlyNamibia will launch flights from Windhoek to Victoria Falls Worldwide Airport (VFA) in Zimbabwe, Maun Worldwide Airport (MUB) in Botswana, and Luanda (LAD) in Angola, greater than tripling its present variety of regional locations. Whereas schedules haven’t been launched, the brand new routes are anticipated to begin in April 2024. Compion added that the airline is now within the ultimate section of introducing Luanda flights.
With this enlargement, FlyNamibia can even improve the variety of plane it operates by means of Westair Aviation. Based on Planespotters.web, the Windhoek-based service has 4 Embraer ERJ-145s in its fleet, all leased from Westair. It additionally expects supply of an ERJ-135, beforehand operated by Air Namibia. It is very important notice that the service is 60% owned by Westair and 40% by Airlink, and makes use of the latter’s 4Z code.
Picture: Gunter Nuyts | Shutterstock
The brand new locations permit the service to extend journey in Southern Africa by connecting among the area’s hottest vacationer cities. Maun is called the ‘tourism capital’ of Botswana, whereas Victoria Falls is among the many most visited locations in Southern Africa. The launch of Luanda flights might additionally put the service within the place to serve the 1000’s of Namibian guests from Angola, in addition to different nationalities connecting by way of Luanda. FlyNamibia just lately launched flights between Walvis Bay (WVB) and Cape City (CPT), its solely vacation spot exterior Namibia.
Understanding Namibia’s connectivity ambitions
In one other episode, AviaDev CEO Jon Howell spoke to the Namibia Airports Firm (NAC) CEO Bisey Uirab to grasp the nation’s connectivity and aviation growth ambitions. NAC manages eight airports in Namibia – two worldwide (WDH and WBV) and 6 home. FlyNamibia is presently the one service servicing the home routes.
By means of its largest and foremost airport in Windhoek, Namibia is related to 5 locations in Africa, one in Europe, and one within the Center East. The routes are served by the next carriers:
- Johannesburg-Windhoek: Airlink and South African Airways
- Cape City-Windhoek: Airlink and FlyNamibia
- Luanda-Windhoek: TAAG Angola
- Addis Ababa-Windhoek: Ethiopian Airways
- Victoria Falls-Windhoek: Uncover Airways
- Frankfurt-Windhoek: Uncover Airways
- Doha-Windhoek: Qatar Airways
Within the subsequent 5 months, FlyNamibia will add a brand new connection to Maun, which is presently unserved. Qatar Airways operates three weekly B787 Dreamliner flights to Windhoek, however the service can be suspended from November 21. Uncover Airways operates about ten weekly flights from Frankfurt with the Airbus A330. Curiously, the service’s first industrial flight with the brand new liveried widebody was on this route on November 11.
Picture: Uncover Airways
The Namibia Airports Firm will interact varied stakeholders from the enterprise neighborhood, the tourism sector, and the federal government to proceed advertising Namibia as a enterprise and tourism vacation spot, inviting extra airways and worldwide arrivals. It would additionally work to take care of the present community and help the airways serving Namibia as a lot as attainable.
Relating to regional connectivity, Bisey Uirab said that the NAC is seeking to broaden its routes and hyperlink Windhoek to Harare (HRE), Lusaka (LUN), Gaborone (GBE), and Durban (DUR) to say just a few. It additionally desires so as to add extra connections to Europe, constructing on the robust historic hyperlinks between Namibia and varied European cities. The Center East can also be into account as a super location for passengers connecting to a number of locations worldwide. The US and the Far East are additionally within the playing cards, however the NAC’s focus is on Europe and the Center East.
What are your ideas on FlyNamibia and the NAC’s growth plans? Will you be visiting Namibia quickly? Please tell us within the feedback!
Sources: AviaDev Perception Africa, Planespotters.web
