Air Botswana failing the tourism industry � MP

Baboki Kayawe | Thursday March 12, 2015 17:12

 

Member of Parliament for Chobe, Ronald Shamukuni yesterday told the House that the national airline was notorious for delays across the region, which have made it unpopular with tour operators and tourists. The MP was commenting on the committee of supply deliberations from the minister of Transport and Communications, Tshenolo Mabeo. He added that the continued delays that the airline has become synonymous with were stunting the sector’s growth given the value creation that air transport played in tourism.  “We are losing business because of delays, which have created an image of unpopularity among tour operators,” he said.

Shamukuni also decried that in the process, regional competitors such as Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nambia benefit from Botswana’s loss because neighbouring country airlines were now favoured. 

He further said the airline was notorious for turning down passengers, citing that they are fully booked.  However, upon boarding it is often discovered that the opposite was indeed true. “In some instances, passengers are told that the aircrafts are fully booked even 30 minutes before departure time only to realise upon boarding that the flight is empty,” he said.

Shamukuni also said this, coupled with a poor road network hindered efforts to diversify the local economy through the tourism industry. He pleaded with government to construct a road between Kasane and Maun as the current arrangement required people to connect through Nata whenever services where needed from the Ngamiland capital. “Travelling from Kasane to Maun through Nata is 600 kms, as opposed to having a direct and shorter route of 280kms,” he said.

Lack of a shorter route affected the tourism sector negatively because there was huge demand for meat and meat products from Maun by the Kasane tourism sector.

“Small businesses now have to bear the financial constraints of travelling long distances in order to supply meat to Kasane hotels,” he said.  Mabeo, who requested Parliament to approve P3.7 billion towards his ministry in his presentation, noted that Air Botswana was implementing a five-year business plan intended to turn the airline into an economically and commercially sustainable operation.  “As a result of implementation of this plan, the airline has seen a constant improvement in On-time Performance (OTP) from 79 percent in April 2014 to 89 percent by first week of February 2015,” he said.  Mabeo further said there was rationalised scheduling; an aircraft was always on standby to ensure efficient schedule recovery, maximised maintenance opportunities, reduced operating cost and increased profitability. Meanwhile, the construction of the airside works for Kasane Airport, which commenced in November 2011, was reported to be complete and under the defects liability period.  “A contract for the new Passenger Terminal and Air Traffic Control  Tower for the Kasane Airport was awarded at P280.8 million. Work commenced in November 2014 and is anticipated to take 18 months to complete,” he said.