WINDHOEK – The national airline has canned the London route, as the world economic crisis continues to take a bite on its bottom line.

In addition, Air Namibia has reduced the frequency of other flights in the region and increased flights in routes deemed to have potential for growth, all in a bid to stay afloat the global economic tsunami.

Besides the suspension of the direct flights to London’s Gatwick Airport “until further notice”, Air Namibia has reduced the number of weekly flights to Johannesburg, and Victoria Falls, and has rescheduled domestic flights including the flights to Cape Town via the Walvis Bay, Lüderitz and Oranjemund route.

Although it is difficult to say how long the difficult period would last, the national airline says it is still “expecting the worst effect of the crisis to hit home”.

Air Namibia’s acting Chief Executive Officer, Theo Namases, says the current global economic crisis and its effect on aviation worldwide, has strained Air Namibia “to re-assess its route network and offering to ensure an equilibrium between supply and demand”.

Namases said the London route, while popular with 92 percent of the market share, is not generating sufficient earnings to achieve the required break-even load factor. Air Namibia has just reduced the frequency in the London route from three to two per week, in an effort to minimise losses.

“The current economic slowdown has constrained demand for air travel service on this route even further,” says Namases.

In the meantime, passengers to the UK would be flown to and from Windhoek via Frankfurt with connections to London’s Heathrow Airport using commercial agreements with Air Namibia’s interline partners. Air Namibia’s last flight to London is on June 3.

The announcement comes against continual decreases in the demand for air travel, with African carriers experiencing the worst decrease at 15.6 percent year-on-year as of March.

To optimise the opportunities, Air Namibia has increased frequency to Luanda, Angola, to four direct flights per week, from the current three flights, while the frequency in Frankfurt route increased to six direct flights per week from the current five weekly flights.

Air Namibia says the two routes – to Luanda and Frankfurt – are its current profitable services, with load factor above 80 percent for Frankfurt and in excess of 85 percent for Luanda. This is in contrast with the load factor of about 60 percent for both the London and Johannesburg routes. The average load factor for airlines, as at March 2009, is at 72 percent.

Acting General Manager for Commercial Division, Mlinga Muyunda, says the Frankfurt route is promising as it is nearing the break-even point, while the Luanda route has begun turning in yields.

As from May 27, Air Namibia would reduce the Wednesday two daily flights to Johannesburg to one per day, bringing the weekly flights to 11.

Flights to Victoria Falls have been reduced to four flights per week from five flights, during the peak season, April to November. During off-season, December to March, Air Namibia would only have three flights per week to Victoria Falls.

The domestic flights to Ondangwa and Katima Mulilo would now leave in the morning and depart in the afternoon. The coastal routes of Eros to Walvis Bay, Lüderitz, Oranjemund and Cape Town have also been revamped.

“The national airline needs to minimise its losses and optimise the opportunities and therefore the following changes,” said Namases.

Trade Release – 29th April 2009
Air Namibia rebooking procedure

Dear Trade Partner,
Further to our press release regarding the suspension of the London operation

In order to minimize the disruption caused by the suspension Air Namibia has
taken the decision to increase the services from five to six flights per week
between Windhoek and Frankfurt.
This additional flight will be on the Thursday (WDH-FRA) and Friday (FRA-WDH)
rotation effective Thursday, 02nd July 2009.

Therefore all passengers currently booked on the affected LON flights from the
2nd July 2009 will automatically be re-protected on the same day.

In order to fulfill the re-accommodation we kindly ask all responsible offices to
follow these procedures depending on our mutual client’s circumstances

I'm greatly disappointed. I was intending to go through London and make a stopover there on my next trip to Namibia.

I wonder if Air Namibia has ever considered that instead of flying a 400 passenger plane half-full they might fly a 200 passenger plane completely full?

On the other hand, skipping Europe and going through JNB wouldn't be so bad if some enterprising airline would figure out to schedule their last flight of the day from JNB to WDH after the SAA or Delta flight from the U.S. arrives so WDH passengers could go on to Windhoek without having to make a long, expensive, and potentially hazardous overnight stay in JNB.

Or some enterprising airline could notice that the jump from the U.S. east coast to WDH can be done with two hours less reserve fuel than JNB. The sensible route would be Atlanta (or Dulles) - WDH - JNB. This would let WDH passengers arrive in Windhoek hours or days earlier, and would avoid the fuel stop for JNB passengers in the ever-lovely Dakar. And guess what? WDH would become a viable hub for all of Southern Africa -- Maun, Vic Falls, Zim, Capetown, etc. Naaahh. Makes too much sense.

Dont know if a rescheduled fuel stop in WDH would do the trick. Likely not, considering required fuel reserves and perhaps crew rest requirements. Last time I did the SAA flight in 2005, we stopped in SAL and they did a crew change going each way. Don't know if they're doing it in Dakar or not, since I'll never fly SAA again.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

On the other hand, skipping Europe and going through JNB wouldn't be so bad if some enterprising airline would figure out to schedule their last flight of the day from JNB to WDH after the SAA or Delta flight from the U.S. arrives so WDH passengers could go on to Windhoek without having to make a long, expensive, and potentially hazardous overnight stay in JNB.

.

Stonecreek,

SAA's non-stop flight from JFK to JNB leaves around 11:30 AM and gets you to the Windhoek flight that arrives there just after 2:00pm the next day. Gotta get to JFK though!

I think Delta still flys from JFK to Cape Town with one stop, but you have to overnight in Cape Town [which would be nicer than Johannesburg]before catching the morning Air Namibia flight to Windhoek [unless that too is cancelled!]

Not sure what you do about the firearms in Cape Town either.

Les

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Dont know if a rescheduled fuel stop in WDH would do the trick. Likely not, considering required fuel reserves and perhaps crew rest requirements. Last time I did the SAA flight in 2005, we stopped in SAL and they did a crew change going each way. Don't know if they're doing it in Dakar or not, since I'll never fly SAA again.

jetdrvr: You certainly know more about it than me, but if some flights make JNB non-stop (with Dakar as their refuling alternate), then it would seem that the always-VFR Windhoek airport would be reachable by most long-haul airliners. If there were direct service from the U.S. to WDH, I think tourism in Namibia would get a huge boost. WDH would also become more of a hub for all of Southern Africa, putting Zim, Zam, Bots, most of S.A., and perhaps even Mozambique within a single day's travel of the U.S. east coast.

By the way, just watch what HBO's series "Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency" does for Botswana tourism.