Air Peace, the Nigerian flag carrier is in discussion with the Namibian Government over the possibility of direct flights between Nigeria and Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
This is as Mr. Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development has asked the Namibian Government to ease visa issuance to Nigerians by introducing visa on arrival for the country’s citizens travelling to the Southern African country.
A statement by Mr. Tunde Moshood, Special Adviser on Media and Communications to Keyamo, said that these formed parts of the discussions between Amb. Humphrey Geiseb, the Namibian Ambassador to Nigeria and Keyamo, when the former paid him a visit in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.
Geiseb in his speech, disclosed that Namibia was currently in discussion with Air Peace on the restoration of direct air connectivity between the two countries.
He did not however state the stage of the discussion with Air Peace on the direct air connectivity, but expressed his country’s desire to partner with Nigerian airlines.
Also, he encouraged Keyamo to engage with domestic airlines to explore potential collaboration opportunities in Namibia.
He expressed that the defunct national carrier, Air Namibia played vital role in ensuring air connectivity between the two countries, but regretted that since its collapse, the ties had reduced drastically.
According to him, the defunct airline was connecting Lagos to Accra during its operational days.
“Unfortunately, Air Namibia faced financial difficulties and was eventually forced to cease operations following a government bailout,” he said.
Presently, the ambassador said that it remained challenging to directly connect Windhoek with Nigeria, with travellers having to transit through Addis Ababa.
But he pointed out that there are occasional flights via TAG Airlines, which he said were not frequent enough to meet the demand for seamless travel between the two nations.
Geiseb further assured Keyamo that he would engage his counterpart, Namibia’s Minister of Aviation, to arrange a possible visit to further strengthen the aviation cooperation between both countries.
Responding, Keyamo expressed his support and shared a personal experience regarding the challenges of establishing direct flights in the region.
He referenced the successful Algeria/Lagos/Cameroon flight routes, which were initiated after the Algerian Ambassador proposed a direct connection, despite the close proximity between Nigeria and Cameroon.
Also, Keyamo expressed that Xejet, Nigerian domestic carrier, currently operates Sierra Leone’s national carrier, Air Sierra Leone.
He said the airline could be a potential partner with the Namibian Government on direct air connectivity.
Besides, Keyamo observed visa challenges between Nigeria and Namibia, stressing that it is usually difficult to obtain a Namibian visa even among those holding a diplomatic passport.
He urged the ambassador to work towards resolving these challenge in order to facilitate smoother travel experience and to open doors for more trade and investment relations between the two countries.
The two parties, agreed to collaborate on these matters to improve bilateral ties.
Both envoys, also spoke on reviewing the existing Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) arrangement between Nigeria and Namibia
