Air Namibia and Lufthansa

Air Namibia Targets European Market with Lufthansa

AIR NAMIBIA TARGETS EUROPEAN MARKET, CONCLUDES DEAL WITH LUFTHANSA

Air Namibia and LufthansaWindhoek, 18th March 2014:  In line with our strategic objectives of strengthening our network and increase access to more markets, Air Namibia is focussed on expanding its presence and reach in Europe. The recently launched campaign aims to offer its customers “one-stop” air connectivity to the rest of Europe, apart from Frankfurt, Germany, where the airline currently operates a direct flight from Windhoek.

Air Namibia operates 6 flights per week between Frankfurt and Windhoek during low season, and 7 flights per week during high season which starts from July to end of November each year, and these are serviced using the two brand new Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The A330-200 comes in a two class configuration of 30 business class and 214 economy class seats. Business Class seats offer a full flat bed, with individual monitors and video on demand while economy class seats also have individual monitors with video on demand.

Air Namibia is currently actively promoting the greater part of Europe, including countries such as Russia and Turkey as well as the Middle East and the Far East. We are also looking at offering connectivity to other key German cities apart from Frankfurt.

Xavier Masule, General Manager: Commercial Services says in order to access these beyond markets optimally, Air Namibia has to forge smart alliances with airlines operating in Europe.

“It is necessary for Air Namibia to partner with appropriate airlines to feed into our flights at Frankfurt.  Frankfurt is Lufthansa’s hub and this makes Lufthansa the most appropriate and ideal airline to partner with,” says Masule.

Hence, effective 1 Dec 2013, an “airline to airline” commercial partnership agreement was concluded and implemented between Air Namibia and Lufthansa..

“This agreement enables traffic to feed and de-feed (traffic exchange) at Frankfurt between Lufthansa and Air Namibia with a convenient ‘one stop’ connection to more than 63 cities in Europe, including big cities in Germany on one issued ticket by Air Namibia,” Masule adds.

The move should be a welcome relief to travellers from Windhoek wishing to visit cities in Europe and vice versa as all other options for travel between any European destination and Windhoek involves either a minimum of two stops or at least a leg to be served using a train journey, which is long, inconvenient and time consuming.

“Europe is now more accessible and convenient than ever before. Air Namibia gives passengers access to multiple cities within each European country on a one ticket and one stop journey,” Masule concluded.

With its new alliance Air Namibia offers one-stop connectivity to the following countries;

1 United Kingdom & Ireland – 5 cities 15 Latvia
2 France – 5 cities 16 Lithuania
3 Italy – 7 cities 17 Malta
4 Austria 18 Netherlands
5 Belgium 19 Norway
6 Bulgaria 20 Poland
7 Cyprus 21 Portugal
8 Czeck republic 22 Russia
9 Denmark 23 Scotland
10 Estonia 24 Spain
11 Finland 25 Sweden
12 Germany – 12 cities 26 Switzerland
13 Greece 27 Turkey
14 Hungary 28 Ukraine

Air Namibia - flights

Increase on Flight Frequency Ondangwa & J’Burg.

AIR NAMIBIA ANNOUNCES INCREASE ON ITS FLIGHT FREQUENCIES FOR ONDANGWA AND JOHANNESBURG ROUTES 

Windhoek, Sunday 16th February 2014: Air Namibia announces additional flight frequencies on its domestic route (Windhoek-Eros and Ondangwa) and regional route between (Windhoek-HKIA and Johannesburg-SA) respectively, due to increase market demand.

Domestic route (Windhoek-Eros and Ondangwa): Effective from 01 April 2014. The airline will add new additional flights on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This means that Air Namibia will have 3 flights per day on these specific days of each week, whilst continuing operating two flights per day on the other days of the week.

New Departure Times for Tuesdays and Thursdays are as follow, effective 01 April 2014 

 Depart Windhoek (Eros) at 11:00

 Depart Ondangwa at 13:30

The route sector between Windhoek and Ondangwa has proved to be the fastest growing route on our entire route network. During the past years, especially the beginning of 2011, Air Namibia offered 532 seats per week for the Eros-Ondangwa route. The number of seats offered on the route was increased to 1,036 per week from February 2011, representing a tremendous increase of 94%. With this latest capacity increase, the total seats offered will increase to 1,184 seats, representing a 14% increase.

Regional route (Windhoek and Johannesburg): Effective 31st March. Additional frequencies will be operated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, bringing the total number of flights to be operated on these days to 3 per week. The new rotation will offer our clients an option for late departure out of Johannesburg-South Africa, and this slot will be ideal for business travellers.

New Departure Times for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays:

Depart Windhoek at 14:55 Arrive in Johannesburg at 16:40, 2

Depart Johannesburg at 18:20 Arrive in Windhoek at 20:20.

This decision to increase our flight frequencies on these routes, testifies Air Namibia’s comitment to continue providing the best and convenient air transport to our flying publics, while offering them flexibility and more options.

Departure Times Change

Change of Flight Departure Time from Windhoek to Accra.

CHANGE OF FLIGHT DEPARTURE TIME FROM WINDHOEK TO ACCRA

Windhoek,04 February 2014:This notice serves to notify all our esteemed and key stakeholders that effective 7th February 2014, the departure time of our flight from Windhoek to Accra will change to 11:00 a.m. (local time at airport of departure) from the current departure time 16:50 (local). Departure time of the return flight from Accra to Windhoek will remain unchanged at 22:50(local).

The decision to change the flight departure time is part of our commitment to continuously innovate and offer services which best meets the needs of the market 

With changed departure time from Windhoek, we will arrive in Accra at about 14:30 (local), which will give our customers going to other destinations within West Africa enough time catch connecting flights to those destinations such as Lagos, and to long haul destinations such as to the Middle East and to Europe

Our changed time to an earlier departure means that our passengers from Johannesburg will now use our 06:40 flights from Johannesburg to Windhoek, to be able to catch the flight to Accra. The waiting time at Windhoek for Cape Town passengers will be reduced (improved) to 2 hours, from the current 8 hours they currently spend in transit at Hosea Kutako.

This change will also offer those passengers from Windhoek, Johannesburg or Cape Town to return same day from Accra if they are business which requires short time to be spent in Ghana.

For further additional information and enquiries in this regard, please contact your nearest Air Namibia office or contact Air Namibia on or or by telephone on +264612996111,Email:

Air Namibia Excellent On Time Records

Excellent On Time Performance by Air Namibia

AIR NAMIBIA RECORDS EXCELLENT ON TIME PERFORMANCE (OTP)

Windhoek, 28 January 2014:

Air Namibia is pleased to announce that for the past six months we have recorded a very good On-Time Performance (OTP), reaching over 93% OTP in some months.

On-Time Performance is known in the aviation industry as the “holy grail” by which airlines are compared and measured.  In most customer surveys that have been performed worldwide, passengers rate airlines according to price and then OTP.  Passengers always want to know that the airline they choose to fly will get them to their destinations on time.

The newly-appointed Chief Operation Officer (COO) of Air Namibia, Rene Gsponer, had this to say:

“Air Namibia is serious about significant improvement on its operational performance and financial sustainability. As the graph below shows our On-Time Performance for the past 9 months has been above our target of 90% this is a commendable achievement for Air Namibia and we have seen an equally positive response from the market in terms of ticket sales and positive feedback.

This has been made possible by a number of factors: the recent recapitalisation of the airline by the GRN has provided the airline with state-of-the- art aircraft which has ranked the airline as one of a few airlines with the youngest operational fleet in the world  resulting in much more reliable aircraft with an improved technical dispatch reliability. Adding-on is the improved  financial stability of the airline allowing normal operations possible and hence our ability to generate improved revenues coupled with many other initiatives.

Air Namibia Excellent On Time RecordsWe wish to thank the Namibian public and in particular the flying public for their forbearance, understanding and support as we went weathered by our challenges during the past year and we thought we should share this good news with them.

We at Air Namibia are very excited and encouraged by our improved operational performance and we are grateful to our shareholder,  travel trade partners and ultimately you the paying customer (passenger) for the continued support.

I encourage the IOCC and all role players to maintain the current OTP momentum and to work towards beating the high standards we have set – to become a best-in-class airline, Mr Gsponer concluded”

Technical Note

OTP is calculated by taking the percentage of flights delayed by more than 15 minutes of the total number of flights performed by an airline in a particular month.  The industry standard is measured on flights that are delayed by 15 minutes or more. Departure delays shorter than 15 minutes are usually made up in flight and the aircraft still arrives at its destination on time.

Air Namibia is proud of the strides it has made to address the challenges we have faced in the past concerning OTP, now our aim is to continue providing the best air transportation.

  

Air Namibia 2013 Feather Award

Air Namibia Awarded the 2013 Feather Award

Air Namibia Awarded the 2013 Feather Award

Windhoek, 03 December  2013:   Air Namibia has scooped a prestigious Feather Award – for the best regional airline at O.R Tambo International Airport in 2013. This is a recognition that the Airport Company of South Africa (abbreviated ACSA), give its key players at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

ACSA holds an annual function at its main international airports namely; O. R. Tambo, Cape Town and Durban International Airports to reward the suppliers and airlines that consistently go the extra mile in providing passenger service excellence.

Air Namibia 2013 Feather AwardThe award is based on a pure clients and passengers opinion survey which is done by external and independent companies for ACSA by interviewing passengers and the tourism industry on the supplier/airline that stands above all. ACSA ensures that, the credibility of the Award is maintained, by adopting various research methods done at different times of the day and week on a larger and representative sample size.

Since the inception of the ACSA Feather Awards eight years ago,Namibia’s national airline has been endlessly nominated and subsequently awarded the Best Regional Airline operating into and from O. R. Tambo International airport seven times.

At Air Namibia we are on this quest to continue serving our purpose of providing the best air transport services in the most safest manner, with consistency and reliability. “We are truly thrilled to note that, our passengers and other businesses, we provide services to, are still keeping us on our toes, to confirm it. Their nomination and subsequent confirmation research are testimony that Air Namibia truly cares about its clients,”said Paulus Homateni Nakawa: Air Namibia Head of Corporate Communications.

The entire Air Namibia family conveys its gratitude and unreserved thanks to the flying public and travel trade for voting us,as their Best Regional Airline, flying into O.R Tambo International Airports.

-End-

About Air Namibia (Pty) Limited

 

Air Namibia, Namibia’s national airline, operates scheduled flights and carries cargo (freights) on domestic, regional and intercontinental flights.  The airline was founded in 1947 as South West Air Transport, which later changed to South West Airways.  In 1992, the airline’s name was changed to Air Namibia.  The mandate of Air Namibia is to be a major contributor towards the attraction and promotion of tourism to Namibia by providing air transport services between Namibia and other countries, as well as by operating flights within the boundaries of Namibia.  The airline is positioned as a niche carrier serving domestic points within Namibia, the immediate regional markets of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Angola.  Points beyond (Asia, USA, Middle East and Europe) are serviced in conjunction with partner airlines via our gateways: Frankfurt, Accra, Johannesburg and Lusaka.