Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) is challenging its mother party to honour its congress resolution to bring back Air Namibia.
This comes after reports revealed that planes previously owned by the now defunct national airline were sold to owners of WestAir Aviation. According to reports, the planes are meant to be leased to clients of Wings Aviation, who include FlyNamibia.
SPYL secretary general Ephraim Nekongo says this move contradicts the Swapo government’s promise to reserve all the Air Namibia planes as part of the plan to bring back the airline.
Nekongo says the resolution to bring back Air Namibia, as resolved by the seventh Swapo ordinary congress, must be fast-tracked.
The congress resolved to revive Air Namibia to provide regional connectivity to destinations such as Johannesburg and Cape Town (South Africa), Lusaka (Zambia), Harare (Zimbabwe), Gaborone (Botswana), Luanda (Angola), Maputo (Mozambique), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Nairobi (Kenya).
“We are also worried by the capitalist approach recently employed by the government in dealing with our parastatals, contrary to the ideology and election manifesto of the Swapo party.
We, therefore, hope that the state will continue to play a role expected of it by the people,” Nekongo says. He says SPYL always maintained that the liquidation of Air Namibia was a concocted move to pave the way for a private airline, at the expense of Air Namibia.
“We will continue to stand firm that the deliberate liquidation of Air Namibia was a wilful move to surrender our air space to the private sector, so that they exert monopoly over that sector, and charge our people exorbitant amounts in flight tickets,” Nekongo says.
The government voluntarily liquidated Air Namibia in February 2021 over financial viability concerns, but, at the time, it did not rule out starting another airline should it suit the country’s developmental goals.
Following the liquidation, in November 2021, WestAir Aviation – which started as an aircraft maintenance facility in 1967 – rebranded to FlyNamibia.
The company purports to take on Air Namibia’s mantle after its demise.
According to FlyNamibia managing director Andrè Compion, Westair Aviation is a 40% shareholder in FlyNamibia, which is a separate company from the Westair Group and has different shareholding (Westair Aviation 40%, Airlink 40%, Andrè Compion 10% and Philip Ellis 10%).
Compion said FlyNamibia has its own board, management and staff.
“I have zero interest in any of the Westair subsidiaries and manage FlyNamibia totally independent from the Westair Group,” Compion said in a response to a local daily.
For More News And Analysis About Namibia Follow Africa-Press
