Staff Reporter – The Zimbabwe Daily
Windhoek, Namibia
State owned Air Namibia’s 11 planes have been grounded as the state owned carrier is now insolvent.
“Taking all the factors into consideration and the requirements of the Air Services Act, namely that an operator must be financially able to provide a safe, satisfactory and reliable air service, the Commission has resolved to suspend Air Namibia’s Schedules Air Services Licence No 00012 again with effect from 23h59 on Wednesday, 8 July 2020,” read part of the letter from the Transportation Commission of Namibia.
However, Air Namibia’s non-scheduled Air Services Licence will remain valid for the duration of the state of emergency in order to allow the airline to undertake humanitarian evacuation and repatriation flight this will however, only apply during the state of emergency, after which the suspension will also be extended to these flights.
Air Namibia is in urgent need of US$469 million. The state owned airline’s financial woes pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic which has ravaged air travel around the world due to the stand-still in tourism.
Moreso, it has failed to produce financial statements in recent years, a requirement of Namibia’s Air Services Act.
In January it faced serious allegations around safety operations and its finances contained in an audit report published by German airline Lufthansae which it is yet to resolve.
