FlyEtosha Airways is still to secure the prerequisite licences to start offering scheduled flights in the country, The Brief can reveal.
This comes as it emerged the airline which has been posting on social media the planned launch of its service, is still to secure an air service licence from the Transportation Commission of Namibia and an air operators licence from the Namibia Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Both licences are required for any airline to start offering flights in the country.
“They have applied for a licence but have not been given yet. There are still in the phase where their application is still open for objection, after which the Commission will seat to consider their application and this will be done next week Tuesday,” Director of Transportation Policy and Regulation in the Ministry of Works and Transport, DR. Cedric Limbo told The Brief.
Transportation Commission of Namibia falls under the Ministry of Works and Transport.
Namibia Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Executive Director Toska Sem said the regulatory body was still to receive an application in the name of FlyEtosha Airways.
“We are still to receive such an application,” Sem told The Brief.
FlyEtosha Airways according to its social media platforms, is a private Namibian airline which will offer scheduled flights within Namibia, Southern Africa and later on international routes.
Following the voluntarily liquidation of Air Namibia in February 2021 amid financial viability concerns, FlyNamibia is currently the country’s sole domestic airline.
FlyNamibia, under its previous brand FlyWestair, was the first private airline to be granted scheduled passenger airline status in Namibia and has been operational since June 2019, expanding its network of flights to include domestic routes from Eros Airport in Windhoek to Ondangwa, Rundu, Katima Mulilo, Oranjemund and now Walvis Bay, as well as a regional route from the Hosea Kutako International Airport to Cape Town.
The governing Swapo Party has recently 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
