Air Namibia abandons Lagos-Accra route

In a statement issued this morning, Air Namibia announced that it, with immediate effect, has suspended its Windhoek-Lagos-Accra route. The route, which was launched at the end of June last year, “started off very well” Air Namibia said. It added that there was a high number of passengers and revenue was good.
“During February 2019, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Namibia banned the issuing of visas to Namibian passport holders. In addition, there are messages circulating in Nigeria about Namibia being “anti-Nigeria”, with travellers being urged to avoid visiting Namibia, as well as avoid using Windhoek as a transit point when travelling to South Africa,” the airline said.
According to Wimpie van Vuuren, the acting general manager of commercial services said that the ban on issuing visas to Namibians “can be linked to allegations that Nigerians are normally ill-treated by Namibian border control officials at Hosea Kutako International Airport when arriving or transiting through Windhoek.”
The airline said that it had consulted various stakeholders to mitigate the diplomatic standoff, but all efforts proved futile.
“The load factor performance of the route dropped from average 55% attained during June 2018 to January 2019, to between 35% and 38% during February to April 2019.”
The airline has opted to suspend this route for an indefinite period.
All affected passengers will be assisted by accommodating them on flights operated by partner airlines at Air Namibia’s cost, or they will be refunded if they opt not to fly anymore.”
STAFF REPORTER