Air Namibia Domestic Operations in Crisis

[samueldethierry]

"Air Namibia's domestic schedule will be severely disrupted if the namibian Directorate of Civil Aviation intensifies its clampdown on alleged safety violations committed by Comav."

There are "major safety concerns".
"The aircraft are not being properly maintained. My job is to protect Air Namibia passengers. They can't use aircraft that I know to be unsafe. I'm not colluding with Air Namibia. I'm colluding with the passengers. Their [Comav] maintenance is shoddy," claimed Larry Makanza, Deputy Director of Aviation Safety and Security .

Air Namibia has announced the cancellation of flights from Windhoek to Ondangwa.
There will be no flights between Windhoek and Victoria Falls.
Air Namibia is working round the clock to bring the situation back on track.

Air Namibia leases five B1900 from Comav to service its domestic routes, it doesn't own any of its aircraft.
Source:
The Namibian (Windhoek) June 2006

My own comment: Oooooo dear.............

[Skaz]

Makanza is 'n mamparra, AirNam practices UBER-Affirmative Action and Westair does Comav's maintenance...oh yeah, Comav's closing down.

[joshua express]

To all the doomsday prophets : Air Namibia's 1900s were never unsafe - it was a personality clash between Makanza and the new owner of Comav that precipitated the above comments. Westair's maintenance is good and Air Namibia is still flying using South African 1900s.

Affirmative action is a reality for the national carriers, does not automatically pose a problem.....

[maxrated]

thats correct, it appears that exec turbine of Lanseria has positioned 3 1900's to Windhoek to fill the gaps, nice work if you can get it ?

[Skaz]

JE nobody said the a/c were unsafe, except Makanza, and no, affirmative action is fine , as long as you are the one getting FO seat in 737 without ATP and 800 TT

[Tom_Kitty]

Tom_Kitty

Just a reply to the entire Comav story. This matter should be divided into two categorys 1, the maintenance of the a/c and 2, the new owner of Comav. Regarding the maintenance, Westairs standards have dropped to shocking standards. The only thing they are good at is writing invoices and a wrotten attitude towards the customers. Trust me, 've been around the block a couple of times on Eros airport and the standards they had a couple of years ago went down the drain when they bought Comav maintenance. The people that came along with the deal no comment. As usefull as a boat in the desert.

So when Makanza says the a/c are in bad state I am inclined to believe it. After all we hear and speak to the air nam pilots nearly daily and what they have to say is also not very encouraging. Unfortunately Makanza is looking for the problem in the wrong place, adress the shoddy maintenance and a whole lot of problems will be solved.

[George Tower]

Tom,

Seems you've just given us half the story......what's with the new owner of Comav? Care to shed any light on the company's future plans?????

[Skaz]

last I heard he bought Comav for 35 mil, then AC sues him for 30 mil that DvM still owed him ?

lotsa thing could be said about Dvm, but theat guy was a helluva bussinessman

maintenance has always been a problem at eros

[Dogship]

Where will it end?

Where will this all end?I would not be surprized if some people will start hurting other people in this regard.I think we will still see alot of quiet action from the side of westair...they would do anything to stop Comav.
WA must have a connection to DCA.We havent heard or read the cause(s) of the accident that happened with the survey C210?Surely if it was maintance related(which many think so), would there be something in the like of an investigation into the maintance division?I would love to know!

I mean if the head of operations at westair, while flying fright-runs to JHB tries to hurry up a F406 in order to land before "The enemy" who are flying a B1900! It did happen and most probably does still!!

[Pow-wow]

Definition of affirmative action:

Get your license by sitting off your time in gov designated flying school - AFFIRMATIVE

Get your job with the national airline on skin colour basis only - AFFIRMATIVE

Get fast track promotion regardles of company minimum requirements or company operations manuals -
AFFIRMATIVE

Get your type rating for advanced types regardless of the advice given by major international training organisations, taking as long as you like -
AFFIRMATIVE

Dont worry the big cookie will crumble one day thou...they all do...wonder who's gonna brush up the crumbs thou???
The truth hurts !