AirNam expands service to Ghana

AIR Namibia has launched a new flight service to Accra, Ghana.
The move comes just weeks after Air Namibia announced a new route to Lusaka via Johannesburg.

‘Air Namibia is working hard on growing our presence into the African continent, and we are doing this by carefully researching the opportunities that are sustainable,’ the airline’s marketing manager, Hellena Kapiya-Nathinge, told The Namibian.Asked about the viability of the two services, she said that the airline’s new route to Lusaka, via Johannesburg, had already seen positive growth and that Air Namibia was working hard to increase the number of people using the service.The introduction of the direct, six-hour flight to Accra ends South African Airways’ monopoly on the Johannesburg-Accra route.Air Namibia is now the only airline to fly directly to Accra from Johannesburg. The SAA flight to Accra flies via Lagos, Nigeria, and lasts eight hours.In an industry briefing on Thursday, Air Namibia said it would operate five flights per week, taking advantage of the ‘fifth freedom traffic rights’ recently granted by the governments of South Africa and Ghana.Fifth freedom traffic rights are rights given for an airline of one country to land in a second country, pick up passengers there and fly on to a third country. Asked whether Air Namibia would also work on improving access and affordability of air travel as part of its expansion plans, Kapiya-Nathinge indicated that this would be attempted in the most sustainable manner.’Africa needs to connect with Africa at reasonable prices, and for the airlines to remain sustainable, these prices need to cover the high cost of operating a scheduled flight too,’ she said. She noted that flight costs include aircraft leasing and maintenance costs, staff costs, navigation costs – with a fee payable to every country an airline flies over, landing costs, reservations, catering, fuel, parking and ground handling costs.nangula@namibian.com.na