More weekly flights to Gaborone and Durban

Air Namibia increased its flight frequencies on its Windhoek-Gaborone-Durban route from five to six this week.

From 28 October 2018, this will increase to seven per week.

Air Namibia now flies to Gaborone and Durban on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, while Saturday will be added on the route network next month. The route is serviced by the Embraer ERJ 135, offering 37 seats in economy class.

Air Namibia launched the route WDH-GBE-DUR during October 2016, following a comprehensive route network development review done, Air Namibia said in a statement. The route development study recommended that the operation WDH-GBE-DUR be operated using the Embraer ERJ 135 fleet, 7 flights per week.

The airline’s general manager for commercial services, Xavier Masule, said during the initial phase of the operation an Airbus A319 was used and flights were offered four times a week. This was changed to Embraer (ERJ) fleet in June this year, operating five flights per week.

“Since the introduction of the ERJ on the route under review, we have spillage and load factors in excess of 85% average per flight during August 2018,” Masule said, adding that the demand for Durban is mostly high during the period August to December.

Further motivating the move to increase frequencies, Masule said the additional rotations on the route are expected to carry about 70% load factor, generating a positive operating margin of 12%.