Botswana’s national carrier, Air Botswana, will sell off three aircraft from its current fleet.
The sale includes two Embraer ERJ-145s and an E175.
This is a significant move since the airline only has six aircraft, and when the sale is completed, Air Botswana will lose half its fleet.
The aircraft have been grounded for some time and are now a drain on state resources, government officials said.
Air Botswana currently operates its flight schedule with just an Embraer E-70 and two ATR 72-600s.
From its hub in Gaborone, the carrier flies to Francistown, Maun, and Kasane in Botswana; Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town in South Africa; Windhoek, Namibia; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Lusaka, Zambia.
Burden on State Resources
Botswana’s President, Duma Boko, said in a televised interview that buyers for the aircraft have already been found. In the future, Air Botswana will wet-lease aircraft instead of buying them, he added.
“Instead of going out and doing wet-leases for aircraft, you go and buy aircraft, many of which are now grounded, so you’ve parked financial resources that we could otherwise have used in the industry,” he said, describing the airline’s past approach. “So these are some of the decisions that served to delay and or impede progress.”
Lack of ‘Industry Experience’
Boko put the situation down to inadequate aviation experience among previous members of Air Botswana’s management team.
“Many of them did not have industry experience, and so decisions that were taken tended to be decisions that were not informed by any real experience and/or outcomes that would help the industry,” he said.
The two ERJ-145s, received in the second half of 2024, had been operated on behalf of Air Botswana by Namibia’s charter/ACMI operator, Westair Aviation. This was because of regulatory obstacles to registering the aircraft in Botswana.
Ch-Aviation reported that Air Botswana’s pilots and engineers were also not familiar with the ERJ-145 aircraft.
The E175, received in August last year, had been grounded for over eight months. This is due to regulatory delays by Botswana’s Civil Aviation Authority regarding the approval of the E175’s manuals.
