Mmegi

Air Botswana to lease out jets as financial pressures mount

Fighting to survive: Air Botswana has huge debts and is also struggling with operational issues PIC: MBONGENI MGUNI
Fighting to survive: Air Botswana has huge debts and is also struggling with operational issues PIC: MBONGENI MGUNI

Despite receiving a more than P300 million investment from government to buy jets, Air Botswana now says its six-aircraft fleet is larger than what it currently needs to run operations efficiently, warning that excess jets are draining the airline’s finances through insurance costs and expensive maintenance obligations.

Last year, Air Botswana welcomed the Embraer E175, in what the then-management labelled as a push for regional expansion with the opening of new routes such as Gaborone-Cape Town. Now the airline says it will lease out the jet alongside the Embraer E170 to other airlines to generate short-term revenue and ease off financial pressures.

The newly appointed General Manager of Air Botswana, Bao Mosinyi, appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and State-Owned Enterprises, said the airline runs a two-flight schedule, which at most needs three aircraft as opposed to the six that the airline currently has.

Editor's Comment
Let the courts follow the money

“Law and order are the medicine of the body politic and when the body politic gets sick, medicine must be administered.”– B.R. AmbedkarThe amount of money at play threatens to test the integrity of the country’s financial system, giving more reason to why the courts must be fully given leeway to lean on the matter and reach a conclusion.Botswana has spent decades building her reputation as a stable and credible financial jurisdiction.The...

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