Air Namibia’s new route to the ECOWAS sub-region; Windhoek-Lagos-Accra was unveiled on Wednesday in Windhoek.

The High Commissioner of the Republic of Ghana to Namibia, Ms. Elizabeth Salamatu Forgor was among the special guests at the event, which was also used as an information sharing platform for stakeholders and partners.

A statement from Ghana’s High Commission, Windhoek-Namibia, said the new route was part of the company’s five-year strategic plan to give travellers easy access to the SADC region.

Air Namibia is assuring quality and comfortable service, four times a week. The Airbus A319-100 aircraft is configured for 16 business and 96 economy class passengers.

The Ghanaian High Commissioner welcomed the milestone, which she said had the potential to open up economic potentials between Ghana and Namibia, most importantly in the areas of trade, tourism, education and cultural exchanges.
Ms Forgor said the collaborations, would be geared towards strengthening the already cordial bilateral relations between the two countries.

She disclosed that background discussions had already taken place with a number of activities planned to make the route successful and urged officials of Air Namibia to utilise the available opportunities on this new route to foster closer cooperation between Ghana and Namibia.

Advocate EP Samson, Managing Director of Air Namibia, stressed on the importance of the new route to their operations in general and particularly to the Namibian economy.

She said despite the fact that the airline was operating in a challenging environment, it was determined to expand to meet the growing demand in the industry and would also provide the needed services with a better alternative travel option to their passengers by reducing travel times between Namibia and West Africa by more than 60 percent.

She further indicated that the company was pleased with the introduction of their services in the market and is already receiving positive feedback on the launch of this new route.

“With this new route Air Namibia will be transporting passengers and cargo on the Lagos-Accra route, utilising the fifth freedom traffic rights granted by the Ghanaian and Nigerian governments respectively,” she added.