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Visit Namibia Africa 2010 | Air Namibia | Unique Destination Airline Advantage

inlovewi — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:58:03 +0000

spacious air namibia cabin

Have you ever wondered why air passengers consider total travel time as well as time spend at destination as key travel quality indicators unique to destination airlines? Well, you should keep that in mind every time you book your flight to Namibia and when you plan your Go2 Namibia Africa 2010 visit.

Take contact with the nearest Air Namibia Office for the lowest total travel time and the most time at destination Namibia travel and holiday offers wherever your journey begins.

For starters, the destination carrier boasts an unmatched 55 year accident free operational history and experience of serving the needs of flying public to and from Namibia. But we know that all airlines claim that privilege and it does not explain what constitutes that no-brainer advantage which cannot be matched by the competition.

To explain the Destination Airline Advantage I will take example of a square where each of the four corners represents point A, B on the top horizontal axis and C & D on the bottom horizontal axis. Common wisdom has it that shortest distance between each of the two points is a straight line.

However, economic necessity imposes on all airlines to adopt a hub and spoke operation strategy to rationalize the use of low capacity aircraft on low traffic routes and higher capacity aircraft on higher traffic routes. It simply means to aggregate passengers from backward points with smaller aircraft into their selected central air traffic hubs and to distribute the aggregated traffic to other own or partner central air traffic hubs from where passengers take onward connecting flights to their final destination.

namibia africa map

Let’s assume for the purpose of this illustration, that point A, the upper right corner on an imaginary rectangle represented the London Air Traffic Hub used by South African Airways, British Airways and Virgin Airlines the principal competitors of Air Namibia as far as ferrying passengers to point D, the bottom left corner representing Windhoek the destination airport. Let’s also assume that points B, upper right and C, lower right corner of the rectangle represent the Frankfurt air traffic hub and the Johannesburg air traffic hub respectively.

As far as air passengers are concerned, the total travel time to destination (calculated in time spend on a journey from point of departure to point of arrival) is derived at by taking into consideration the time lapsed since departure from the initial hub connection till arrival at the final destination. The total travel time to destination is only one of criteria for choosing a certain itinerary as people make their booking choices for a number of reasons and that it is their right.

namibia africa nature parks

However, we hope to illustrate that in the case of a decision based entirely on the consideration of total time traveled and time spend at the the destination auirline has a unique advantage which cannot be matched by competitors.

Savings on total travel time and time at the travel destination are important quality indicators of a travel offer, as far as the value for money proposition is concerned as well health impact as it reduces travel related stress and more leisure time at the travel destination. Holidays are not meant to b spend at transit airports, they are meant to be spend in relaxing natural environments.

Here are the unique destination airline advantages of Air Namibia on the Europe to Namibia Route:

1. Air Namibia uses like Lufthansa and SAA the Frankfurt am Main International Airport European Air Traffic Hub to aggregate passengers flying-in from points beyond Frankfurt. Other airlines like Air France and British Airways understandably use their respective Charles de Gaul Air Traffic Hub and Heathrow/Gatwick Air Traffic Hubs to aggregate passengers they ferry to their Namibia destination. It is without significance whether a passenger chooses to connect from a point beyond via either the Frankfurt, Paris or London Air Traffic Hubs to destination Namibia, as everybody has to connect or transit via one of these European Air Traffic Hub;

2. What is significant is the difference in the flight time between the Frankfurt, Paris and London European Air Traffic Hubs and the transit Johannesburg Air Traffic Hub on the one hand (which is on average 11hours) and between the Frankfurt and the final destination Windhoek Air Traffic Hub (which 9hours 45minutes).

3. What is also significant is the fact that the overnight southbound Frankfurt/Windhoek Flights arrive in the early morning hours at the destination airport and thus enables visitors to reach their hotels and lodges in time to benefit from a full 1^st day’s schedule at their destination location. Indirect flights from Europe via the Johannesburg Air Traffic Hub by contrast arrive at the South African Transit Hub in the mid-morning. Taking into consideration at least two hours transit time for baggage and passenger processing and a further two hour flight to Windhoek, passengers taking the indirect route only arrive in the early afternoon and thus loose an entire day’s schedule on their first day.

4. This same pattern is repeated but only in reverse order on the day of departure from Namibia back to Europe and beyond. Passengers taking Air Namibia board the flight in the late evening in Windhoek and arrive early morning in Frankfurt, in time to connect to their flights to points beyond. Under the normal flight schedule northbound flights depart in the evening, thus allowing passengers to still enjoy a full day at the destination. By contrast passengers flying out to Europe and beyond via SAA, Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic etc via the indirect Johannesburg route have to check-out early and leave to the Hosea Kutako Windhoek international Airport in mid-morning to catch the mid-day connecting flights to South Africa. They usually spend the remainder of the afternoon in transit at the Johannesburg International Airport whilst waiting for the evening flights to Europe.

5. The unique selling proposition of the destination airline Air Namibia is therefore that it offers the advantage of two extra days at the destination to its business and leisure passengers – time spend in transit by passengers flying on the indirect route via Johannesburg to Namibia. I do not know about you, but all things being equal, I will anytime choose an extra day or two at a holiday destination than spending that time in transit at impersonal, over commercialized transit airports, no matter how modern they may be.

air namibia

Therefore when planning your Visit Namibia Africa 2010 trip do not hesitate to make Air Namibia your first choice. It has a proven safety record, it’s Airbus A340-300 aircraft are maintained by Lufthansa Technical Services GmbH in Frankfurt. The pilots trained by Air Namibia are amongst the best in the world as some currently pursue their pilot careers with the most respected international airlines like KLM, South African Airways, Cathay Pacific etc. Most important of all it gains you two extra days of quality time at the holiday or business destination Namibia. If for you like for me, time is money and leisure time is worth double the money then your first choice of carrier for the Go2Namibia2010 plan should be a no-brainer decision.

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Visit Namibia Africa 2010 | Air Namibia | Service History

inlovewi — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:29:57 +0000

Air Namibia, the national airline of Namibia and leading African airline is also one of the oldest African airlines. It was founded in 1964 as South West Africa Airlines as the country was known at the time. It is this historical convergence between origin of the country and airline name which explains the SW designation of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Code of Air Namibia. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) code i.e, NMB reflects by contrast reflect the official international country and airline abbreviation in use since independence in 1990.

Air_namibia_B747_carrier

Air Namibia, one of the leading african airlines has a proud accident free operational history involving over 50 years of:

international flights linking the European international flight hubs of Frankfurt and London with Windhoek International Airport
regional flights linking the major southern african travel travel hubs of Cape town, Johannesburg, Gaborone, Harare, Victoria Falls, Lusaka and Luanda with Windhoek, the capital of Namibia and Walvis Bay.

Aware of its underdog status as a small but proud leading african airline with a modest fleet compared with the much bigger regional and international competitors with unlimited resources, Air Namibia chose from the outset to distinguish itself through :

More space (leg room) and comfort in its economy and business class cabins;
Better on the ground and in the air passenger service;
Customary warm Namibian hospitality;
Adherence to the strictest airline safety norms applicable anywhere in the world as attested by its over 50 accident free operational hisory.

spacious cabin

The mark of the quality of Air Namibia’s customer service is that it has been able to maintain its competitiveness on its principal international Windhoek/Frankfurt route inspite of strong direct competition from Lufthansa which stopped direct flights to Namibia in the mid 90’s and now strengthens the indirect competition from South African Airways its codeshare partner. The two jointly ferry passengers to namibia via the frankfurt and Johannesburg hubs.

Air Namibia remains today the sole international scheduled carrier operating daily direct flights (important for business travellers) from its European Hub in Frankfurt to Namibia. LTU, the other German Charter Carrier only operates two day/night 24hour rotations per week from its Dusselfdorf hub with an intermediate stop in Munich on its way to Windhoek. The majority of the German settlers in Namibia came from these to two federal states, namely Northrhein Westphalia and Bavaria and thus have strong historical cultural and family ties to the country.

Air Namibia has historically been operating its international service to Frankfurt initially with a Boeing 747SP with a transit stop in the Cape Verde Islands as the anti-apartheid embargo prohited the airline and country under the administration of apartheid south Africa to overfly African air space.

The airline subsequently used Boeing 767 and Macdonald Douglas DC11 Aircraft after independence on the more direct flight route before switching to its current AirBus A340 aircraft. The two-three our flight range regional routes of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Luanda, Lusaka, Victoria Falls and Gaborone as a the domestic routes were over the years operated with Fokker, Beechcraft and Boeing 737 aircraft. Only the Boening 737 remains in service on the regional routes whilst the domestic services were outsourced to a local airline operator flying out of the Windhoek City Eros Airport, which to this day the busiest small plane airport on the african continent.

There can be no greater acknowledgement of the quality of the Air Namibia pilot training and the skills of its ground operational staff than the fact that pilots trained in the company are routinely recruited by major international airlines from all over the world and continue to pursue distinguished aviator careers under the wings of Airlines like KLM, South African Airways, Cathay Pacific etc to name but a few.

The more than fifty years accident free operational history has earned Air Namibia the respect of local, regional and international airline fraternity as well as its flying customers. This has enabled the airline over the years to win numerous best african and regional airline of the year awards from the global travel and hospitality community.

Air Namibia, the national airline of Namibia can therefore be proud of its achievement as not only the home of one of the oldest African airlines as but also its cherished record of over 50 years of accident free operational history. This clearly shows that the airline continues to place the highest priority on the calling all airline carriers to bring their passengers safely and comfortably to their respective destination ports. This also the reason why it is recognized as one of the leading african airlines.

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