Air Namibia squashes outsourcing allegations

Air Namibia this week snubbed allegations that the company was to outsource departments within the firm in an effort to help increase their revenue.

Regarding the allegations faced with the airliner, Paulus Nakawa, Corporate Communications Officer at Air Namibia responded to the Economist and said no assessment has been embarked on whether or not the option is viable. According to Nakawa no departments are set to be outsourced therefore no contracts have been set up.
Nakawa said that, “Management is on the lookout for any new idea that will help us to contain cost and focus on our core business and we are discussing this in that spirit but the assessment to determine such has not even commenced yet.”
“We will look at all ‘non-core’ departments in the assessment, but until an assessment is done, nothing can be decided .The economic contribution that Air Namibia makes to the overall GDP of Namibia is immense, hence speculations as these are meant to derail the progress we are making and we will therefore not entertain them,” Nakawa said.
Said Nakawa, “we have communicated on this matter before and we made it clear this remains an internal discussion for now. We will definitely communicate once this has been discussed with the various stakeholders because it is premature for now.”
With the staff at Air Namibia concerned with the outsourcing venture speculation, Nakawa said, “staff is engaged on an ongoing basis where we assured staff that even if outsourcing or joint ventures became likely, we would ensure that no staff would be unemployed. Air Namibia’s management is working on a turnaround plan approved by government which ensures that we are following specific criteria with regard to cost and revenue.”
Meanwhile Air Namibia reported operating revenue of just over N$1.2 billion in 2013 compared to just over N$1.4 billion in 2014. Last year Air Namibia broke several revenue generating records and reported overall 2014 revenue of about N$2 billion.
However, during a recent overview of business operations it was noted that the airline is still working on operational profitability. Which is a turnaround plan approved by government to ensure the Airline is following specific barometers with regard to cost and revenue.