THE chief executive officer of the Namibia Airports Company (NAC), Bisey /Uirab, on Friday described the liquidation of Air Namibia as unfortunate as it would greatly impact his company’s operations.
/Uirab said the liquidation of the national airline calls for a collaborative stakeholder engagement in marketing Namibia to attract more airlines and increase the number of passengers at domestic airports.
“Since the inception of the NAC in 1999, Air Namibia has been a key partner and stakeholder in promoting air service development in the domestic, regional and international sphere.
It is unfortunate that more than 65% of our operations was largely dependent on our national carrier,” he said.
While Air Namibia has grounded its fleet, other airlines, such as Ethiopian Airlines, Eurowings, Airlink and Westair continue to fly in and out of Hosea Kutako International Airport (HKIA) to Addis Ababa, Frankfurt, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
South African-owned Airlink operates the Cape Town and Johannesburg routes at Walvis Bay Airport, while the local, privately owned Westair further operates the Eros-Ondangwa route.
“Equally important, Turkish Airlines has also commenced with a cargo flight operation at HKIA via Johannesburg, which operates on Mondays to transport cargo between Namibia and Istanbul, Turkey,” Uirab said.
/Uirab said airports are catalysts of economic development as they play a key role in the facilitation of air connectivity.
He said the NAC’s key focus is to ensure that the airports have the requisite infrastructure in accordance with national and international standards to promote safe and secure airport operations.
BAN ON AIRNAM STAFF
Meanwhile, the airports company on Friday withdrew the airport access permits of Air Namibia staff members at all airports under its operations – irrespective of whether such facilities may have been allocated to Air Namibia in the past.
In a staff memo seen by The Namibian, Uirab instructed his staff to stop issuing new access permits to any Air Namibia employee. “You are further requested to prepare a stop-and-desist list and to coordinate with the Namibian Police force our respective airports for immediate implementation of this directive.
“The aforesaid arrangement is highly necessary for the safety and security of NAC airports, in addition to ancillary operational considerations,” /Uirab said.
The barring of Air Namibia staff from NAC facilities comes after the airline’s liquidation was announced on Thursday.