21 Oct 2014

Air Botswana has opened an office in Cape Town to service the airline’s two routes of Maun/Cape Town and Gaborone/Cape Town.

Air Botswana general manager, Mr Ben Dahwa said in an interview that the airline started flying to Cape in June 2012 first with the operation of Maun-Cape Town route and in October of the same year they began the Gaborone-Cape Town operation. However, when their passengers encountered problems, but there was no one on the ground to address them.

He said it was for these challenges that the airline realised the need to have a permanent presence in this very important destination and market and said the presence of dedicated personnel based in Cape Town will go a long way to address the needs of this market. 

He said having been appointed as the general manager in May this year, his early months were hectic and as a team they spent a lot of time in recent months stabilising their operations including having maintenance work on their entire fleet.

The general manager assured this publication that over the past few months, their performance record has consistently been above 85 per cent, with most delays contained within an hour at a time when one or two of their aircraft are away in heavy maintenance shop visits and said they have set themselves a target of 90 per cent in the short term ahead of their re-fleeting and upgrade strategy implementation which is yet to be approved by the shareholder.

Mr Dahwa said since they have identifies the problem in the operations of the airline; they are now focusing in solving it.  He said they have also optimised their operations and have recently expanded their cargo facilities and handling space, positioning them well, in anticipation of increased cargo business through Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA).

He said the facility is also well equipped to handle all types of cargo from perishables to valuables and stated that currently they operate a dedicated cargo freighter on their Johannesburg-Gaborone route two times a week.

He said this means that their customers can now send more volumes since their commercial aircraft do not have capacity for large volumes as they also carry passengers.  He said they are in the process of acquiring new ground handling equipment to the tune of P43 million.

Mr Dahwa said work has been completed with the assistance of renowned consultants to finalise a five year strategy plan which will inform a whole range of initiatives to drive revenues, manage and contain costs, increases efficiencies and productivity as well as appropriate resources in all business areas to optimise their business revenues.

Air Botswana country manager based in Johannesburg, Mr Isaac Mabote said the opening of the Cape Town office came at a time when the market for the two routes is increasing which made it difficult for them at Johannesburg to service the Cape Town market to the customer’s satisfactory.

He said with the presence of personnel at the Cape Town International Airport, customers queries will be solved immediately while those above the jurisdiction of an officer in Cape Town will be dealt with by his office. ENDS