Air Nam offloads inefficient Fokkers

HIGH fuel consumption and maintenance costs have forced Air Namibia to sell the two Fokker28 aircraft which it bought from Kalahari Express Airlines in a N$43 million deal.

Air Namibia’s manager for Corporate Communications, Ellison Hijarunguru, confirmed to The Namibian yesterday that the two F28s were sold for N$3,5 million to a Johannesburg-based company called Airquarius. Hijarunguru said the book value of the two aircraft at the end of March 2007 was N$1,1 million – “which also represents the fair market value”.The two planes were bought by Trans-Namib in the N$43 million buyout of Kalahari Express Airline and became part of the airline in October 1998 when Air Namibia was de-linked from TransNamib Limited.All assets and liabilities of TransNamib which had anything to do with airline operations, including the shareholding in Kalahari Express Airlines with its 2 F28-3000 aircraft, were transferred to Air Namibia effective the beginning of April 1999.Air Namibia used the aircraft to service some of its regional routes, like the Vic Falls, Maun and the Eros – Johannesburg routes.Hijarunguru said the two aircraft were built in 1976.”Due to the old age of these aircraft, they proved not to be economically viable to operate as a result of high fuel consumption and high maintenance costs.The aircraft thus had an unacceptably low dispatch reliability rate due to continued and regular technical problems experienced,” Hijarunguru said.He said the aircraft had to undergo mandatory modifications on each of their engines and landing gears for them to be certified as airworthy by the regulating authorities during 2002.At the time, the cost of the modifications was estimated at approximately US$10 million (around N$70 million), an amount which Air Namibia regarded as too high, and not worth spending on such old equipment.”It would have made economic sense to spend such an amount of money on securing newer aircraft rather than on old equipment with a very short economic life span,” Hijarunguru said.He said Air Namibia decided instead to find organisations operating such equipment who would be interested in performing such modifications and then either lease the aircraft or buy the aircraft.”No such persons or organisations who are interested in the deal could be found.Only one operator of such equipment was found in the SADC region, Airquarius based in Johannesburg, South Africa expressed interest”.Since the two aircraft were parked in a hangar since 2002 they were regarded as “not airworthy”.Hijarunguru said the sale was negotiated “over a period of time and the final sale agreement was recently concluded with Airquarius”, who bought the aircraft mainly for use as spares to service their other F28 aircraft they have in their fleet.The total number of F28 aircraft manufactured in the world is 241, of which only 92 were still in operation by August 2006.The aircraft were not in use by scheduled commercial airlines, with Airquarius and Libyan Arab Airlines being the only major operators on the African Continent.The last of the F28 aircraft was produced in 1987, and since then the manufacturer stopped producing them.Hijarunguru said the book value of the two aircraft at the end of March 2007 was N$1,1 million – “which also represents the fair market value”. The two planes were bought by Trans-Namib in the N$43 million buyout of Kalahari Express Airline and became part of the airline in October 1998 when Air Namibia was de-linked from TransNamib Limited.All assets and liabilities of TransNamib which had anything to do with airline operations, including the shareholding in Kalahari Express Airlines with its 2 F28-3000 aircraft, were transferred to Air Namibia effective the beginning of April 1999.Air Namibia used the aircraft to service some of its regional routes, like the Vic Falls, Maun and the Eros – Johannesburg routes.Hijarunguru said the two aircraft were built in 1976.”Due to the old age of these aircraft, they proved not to be economically viable to operate as a result of high fuel consumption and high maintenance costs.The aircraft thus had an unacceptably low dispatch reliability rate due to continued and regular technical problems experienced,” Hijarunguru said.He said the aircraft had to undergo mandatory modifications on each of their engines and landing gears for them to be certified as airworthy by the regulating authorities during 2002.At the time, the cost of the modifications was estimated at approximately US$10 million (around N$70 million), an amount which Air Namibia regarded as too high, and not worth spending on such old equipment.”It would have made economic sense to spend such an amount of money on securing newer aircraft rather than on old equipment with a very short economic life span,” Hijarunguru said.He said Air Namibia decided instead to find organisations operating such equipment who would be interested in performing such modifications and then either lease the aircraft or buy the aircraft.”No such persons or organisations who are interested in the deal could be found.Only one operator of such equipment was found in the SADC region, Airquarius based in Johannesburg, South Africa expressed interest”.Since the two aircraft were parked in a hangar since 2002 they were regarded as “not airworthy”.Hijarunguru said the sale was negotiated “over a period of time and the final sale agreement was recently concluded with Airquarius”, who bought the aircraft mainly for use as spares to service their other F28 aircraft they have in their fleet.The total number of F28 aircraft manufactured in the world is 241, of which only 92 were still in operation by August 2006.The aircraft were not in use by scheduled commercial airlines, with Airquarius and Libyan Arab Airlines being the only major operators on the African Continent.The last of the F28 aircraft was produced in 1987, and since then the manufacturer stopped producing them.