On Sunday the 30th of October 2016, Durban’s King Shaka International Airport welcomed the inaugural flight of Air Namibia. The airline is now flying a four times weekly Windhoek - Gaborone - Durban schedule, with flights on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The airline will be servicing this route with an Embraer ERJ 135 Jet, which can take up to 37 passengers.

Air Namibia has 5th freedom traffic rights in Gaborone. This means that Durban passengers can travel to both Gaborone and Windhoek. Durban's King Shaka International Airport continues to surpass both passanger and cargo volume projections, having experienced a 14% passenger growth from August 2015 to August 2016, as well as an impressive 17% growth in cargo over the same period.

The introduction of the new flights, linking Durban to Windhoek and Gaborone, serves to further strengthen King Shaka International Airport’s regional network, improving air connectivity amongst these three cities and their respective onward destinations, ensuring that Durban passengers will benefit from cost and time savings, making it convenient to reach these and other connecting destinations.

Last night, 31 October, at the official launch event for the two new routes, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mr Sihle Zikalala, welcomed the inaugural Air Namibia flight saying, “The increase in air services to a destination facilitates growth in other sectors of the economy by supporting increased trade, attracting new businesses to the region, encouraging investment and enhancing productivity; the new route will certainly contribute positively to KwaZulu-Natal’s economic development.”

Mr Hamish Erskine, CEO Dube TradePort, further noted, “The new route will stimulate tourism and business travel amongst KwaZulu-Natal, Botswana and Namibia, bolstering the province's integrated regional network, which already includes direct flights to Ethiopia, Mozambique, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This is in addition to stimulating employment in our own aviation industry, as there are a host of jobs created that are critical to the operations of an airline, from stewards who handle passengers and their baggage and other technical personnel who operate, service, and maintain aircrafts.”

Tickets for flights are already available on Air Namibia for the Durban route through travel agents, the Air Namibia website and Global Distribution Systems.

Terence Delomoney, GM: KSIA; Sihle Zikalala, KZN MEC for EDTEA; Wimpie van Vuuren, SM: Sales and Marketing , Air Namibia; and Hamish Erskine, CEO, DTPC.

About Air Namibia
In existence since 1946 and head quartered in Windhoek, Air Namibia is the national airline of the Republic of Namibia. Air Namibia’s core service offerings are passenger and cargo air transport services, and ground handling services at Windhoek’s Hosea Kutako International Airport. The airline is a member of IATA, and they are proudly E-IOSA certified.

Air Namibia offer flights connecting Namibia to cities in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, as well as to Europe through Frankfurt in Germany. Their fleet of 10 aircraft comprises 2 x Airbus A330-200’s, 4 x Airbus A319-100’s and 4 x Embraer Regional Jets (ERJ 135’s).

The airline places a lot of emphasis on ensuring that their passengers are treated with the highest level of courtesy and respect, and served with their warm Namibian hospitality. Air Namibia treat their passengers as pampered guests from the moment they embark to the moment they disembark. Air Namibia’s service offering is synonymous with Namibian hospitality. Highly trained and professional pilots, cabin crew, and ground personnel provide optimum assistance from the beginning of your journey until you reach your destination.

Air Namibia is the winner of the Feather Awards for Best Regional Airline by the Airports Company of South Africa, each year over the last 10 years in service excellence. In 2016, they won the “2nd Best Regional Airline in Africa” award by Skytrax.