Solutions for Air Namibia

ONCE again Air Namibia has received a mammoth bailout of N$500 million, bringing their total since the turn of the century up approximately N$3.5 billion. That is according to the front page of The Namibian newspaper based on research by the economist Robin Sherbourne.

In the last issue of the Informanté, the editor in his column said his bit about the latest budget, and mentioned the bailout for Air Namibia as money going into a ‘Big Black Hole’. How right he is and to think that it all comes from the bottomless pocket of the hard suffering tax payer.What surprises me is that not one member of the government or parliament has the guts or backbone to stand up and shout out ‘what the hell is going on?’Do they not care or are they only interested in themselves and not about the people who voted them into office – the taxpayer?On the 14th December 2011 a friend of mine travelled from Walvis Bay to Cape Town with Air Namibia, and he departed one and a half hours late. No apology or reason as to why they were running late. Thank God he never had a connecting flight to catch.Somebody from high up must do some pruning on the managerial tree, starting at the top. Shake the incompetent managers out and replace them with competent people, preferably ones who have prior knowledge of an airline operating experience.Two African Airlines were also in the same position, with the government as controlling parties, namely Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines.At Kenya airlines – the government yielded to pressure and let the outside world in to assist them. They gave up their majority shareholding – Air France/KLM bought a 26% share, with the local business community getting a large percentage and the government keeping the balance of shares. Kenya Airways now runs a profitable business with a large fleet of modern aircraft.I read a very interesting article in an aviation magazine ‘SA Flyer’ about Ethiopian Airlines and it was in a similar state (article attached but it is not possible to replicate – Ed). Frustrated TaxpayerSwakopmund