I have to agree and it's a damn shame to (not about agreeing with you JG
) about the airline.
We've flown on them a total of five times. We did the long haul flights twice from Frankfurt direct to Windhoek the first two years they opened the route. Very good service and very good flights etc. Only reason we stopped going that route is the third year and for a couple of years after, the CITY of Frankfurt required transit permit for firearms. Only did it for two years, I think, and then the German Federal govt shut that requirement down telling the City they had no jurisdiction over the federal airport. Shortly after that, Air Namibia had raised it's airfares two where they weren't competitive anymore AND added an extra fee for carrying firearms on top of that and we just found other routes.
Since then we've used their regional flights three times - twice from Windhoek to Vic Falls and back. Tickets were not the cheapest, but only other way was routing back to J'berg and into Vic Falls each way and killed an entire day, whereas via Air Namibia it was a little more than a 1hr flight direct. Flights were all on time, the service was fine, no issues.
The last time we used Air Namibia was this past Aug 2019 from Windhoek to Gaborone Botswana and back. Their financial problems were worsening and problems with CNX'd flights on short to no notice was occurring more and more frequently but again, they were the only carrier with direct flights between and I didn't want to have to deal with SAA or their subsidiaries and the SAPS BS in J'berg both ways. I did however plan our return to Windhoek a full day before our return flt on KLM back to Amsterdam and home on Delta. Good thing too. Day before our return, I got an email that our flight back had been CNX's with NO alternatives provided. Gerhard got on the phone and it took a couple of hours to sort out our return that ended up taking us back thru J'berg on SAA, four hour layover and then J'berg to Windhoek on Air Namibia. Our luggage and rifles would be checked all the way thru so no screwing around with SAPS.
Long story short, we made the fights to Windhoek, but none of our checked luggage or rifle cases did. Lots of phone calls and the lost baggage guy in Windhoek was able to locate everything in J'berg and without out all the sleepless night details, our luggage and rifle cases did arrive in Windhoek 2hrs before our KLM flight departed. I know one of the NAMPOL Sgts at the airport and tracked her down and she helped expedite clearing our rifles in and right back out again and we did make our flight. I resolved at that point that it will be a VERY longtime, if ever, that I fly Air Namibia again.
They really screwed up when they tried to open the long haul flights to Frankfurt on their own. They should have just partnered with Lufthansa for daily service and gave them a sweet deal on landing fees and fuel and just concentrated on domestic and regional flights. They would have saved a lot of money partnering than what they spend and ultimately lost trying to run with the big dogs.
