Air Namibia suspends regional flights

By Hilary Mare

AIR Namibia will from November 16 suspend Cape Town and Johannesburg flights for a period of four weeks to allow two of its planes to undergo maintenance.

In a statement released this week, the national carrier said that domestic routes will continue to operate as scheduled, as they are unaffected by the scheduled maintenance activities.

“This serves to inform the flying public and all stakeholders that Air Namibia’s two Embraer Jet (ERJ) aircraft will undergo scheduled heavy maintenance checks from 16 November 2020. These checks are expected to be completed within four weeks. Air Namibia’s ERJ fleet is used for servicing all domestic routes, as well as Cape Town and Johannesburg routes. Given the afore-stated maintenance activities, the airline will be operating two of the four aircraft only from 16 November 2020, as the other two will be inducted for maintenance,” the statement read in part.

The airline highlighted that safety and regulatory compliance was the cornerstone and at the heart of operations.

“In line with its vision statement of being a safe, reliable, efficient and caring airline, Air Namibia operates a fleet carefully selected to meet expectations of its stakeholders.

These expectations include performance dependability and comfort,” Theo Mberirua, interim Chief Executive Officer said.

He added: “These heavy scheduled maintenance activities will be undertaken by our own Namibian employees, who are fully trained and certified aircraft maintenance engineers. The Air Namibia maintenance team is duly registered, and has been maintaining the ERJ fleet for the past 10 years.”