18 Jun 2019

Air Botswana General Manager, Ms Agnes Khunwana says  the national airline is working around the clock to turn its fortunes around and restore customer confidence.

Speaking in an interview recently, Ms Khunwana admitted that the airline had in recent times, been experiencing challenges  that included among others delays in flight schedule and frequent technical problems, which negatively impacted on customer confidence and cash flow.

She highlighted that in 2016, the board approved the implementation of a conservative strategy to turn the airline’s operations to profitability over a five year period, with re-fleeting being one of the key strategic goals.

The re-fleeting she said entailed a fleet of five aircrafts starting with the procurement of three ATR42-500 and ATR72-500 turbo propeller aircraft, two jets and another jet to be procured at the fourth year of the strategic plan.

She highlighted  that the airline had made sufficient progress in the re-fleeting process.

Ms Khunwana said the three ATR42-500 were sold to the manufacturer as part payment  for the procurement of two ATR72-600 Turbo propeller aircraft, which have since been delivered and instantly integrated into service.

Government then, she said, recapitalised the airline to the tune of P290 million, adding that the third aircraft, Embraer (E170) Jet, which was also procured through a government loan, was also delivered in December 2018, with the intention to integrate it into service from March 01, 2019.

 “The airline took a deliberate move not  to integrate into service the  new air-craft immediately after its delivery as it was delivered during the off- peak season, hence it did not make business sense to introduce a new route during a low season since it was to embark on the Gaborone-Cape Town route,” she said.

 Further, she said the E170 jet was also a new aircraft type to be licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana and there was shortage of capacity to fully licence it, hence a bit of time allowance to fully facilitate the licensing.

Parallel to the delay in the jet licensing, Ms Khunwana indicated that the airline also had to orientate its pilots to fly the E170 Jet as they were previously only licensed to fly the ATR aircrafts.

Ms Khunwana further announced  that following an intense assessment process carried out by both the CAAB and its South African counterpart, the E70 Jet was successfully licensed and was integrated into service and will be deployed in the Cape Town route as well as combination routes between Gaborone-Harare and Lusaka.

 “This is an exciting milestone for the airline as the development paves the way for Air Botswana to recover its schedule and deliver its promise of more stability and expand operations to its valued customers,” she said.

She said the airline will also apply for Foreign Operation Permits to countries it intended to operate its Jet.

She said the re-fleeting was one way of government efforts to make the airline more attractive to potential investors in the ongoing privatisation project. ENDs