Air Botswana warms up to competition

BONIFACE KEAKABETSE
Correspondent | Wednesday June 20, 2012 00:00

 

Airlink commenced daily flights on the route last Friday, heralding stiff competition for AB, which has been plagued by poor service delivery, including flight delays.

Before last Friday, Air Botswana, apart from private and chartered aircrafts, was the only airline operating scheduled flights from South Africa to the Okavango Delta. Air Botswana general manager, captain Sakhile Nyoni Reilling told the media that they welcome competition on the route.

Speaking during the Aviation Pitso held here last week, Reilling said since they launched a stabilisation strategy to bring back customer confidence, there have been improvements in terms of customer satisfaction.  'Our on time departure has improved from 50 to 80 percent,' she said.

She disclosed that Air Botswana has been reinstated to the International Airline Transport Association (IATA) after resigning from the association in 2007. 'We earlier this year passed an audit from IATA,' she said. Reilling said the airline is also in the process of introducing 16 more routes, locally and regionally. The Maun-Cape Town route is already operational, she said.

She however, revealed that at the moment they are operating the Cape Town route at a loss. She said that they expect to start making profit next year once customers are familiar with the service. She revealed that exorbitant jet fuel prices make the airline business very expensive to operate. 

Speaking during the Pitso, Transport Minister, Nonofo Molefhi said Air Botswana will soon fly directly to other cities in the SADC bloc to facilitate intra-regional trade in the region. He said already the new Lusaka-Gaborone route has become one of Air Botswana's favourite routes.