Namibians woke up yesterday to find they no longer had a national carrier as reports came in of Cabinet’s decision to liquidate Air Namibia.
The 74-year-old carrier is to round up its operations yesterday, February 11.
An advisory on Air Namibia’s social media sites confirms the liquidation, saying all flights are cancelled and all aircraft are returning to base. It also says its reservation system is suspended and affected passengers should correspond with the addresses refunds@airnamibia.aero or callcentre@airnamibia.aero
More than 600 staff are expected to lose their jobs. Last week Travel News reported that the board of the airline had resigned en masse due to their unhappiness with several aspects of what the board termed interference by the government, which went as far as the government allegedly initiating a restructuring exercise for the airline without the prior knowledge of the board A media release issued by the board prior to their resignation, alleged that the state was managing the appropriated budget earmarked for the company without the involvement of the board.
The release said the airline had “an amount of N$948m (R948m) allocated in the 2020/2021 fiscal year by the Ministry of Finance and approved by Parliament and the board had to date not been briefed on how these funds were disbursed to the airline if at all, other than a monthly allocation for employee salaries”.
