South Africa and
Namibia have
signed a Bilateral
Air Services
Agreement (BASA) to
strengthen civil aviation
relations between the two
countries.
“Our air service
arrangements are liberal,
with our designated
airlines allowed to,
among others, operate
an unlimited number of
f lights per week per side
for passenger services;
unlimited overnight
express cargo with an
aircraft weight that does
not exceed 5 700kg; and
exercise fifth freedom
traffic rights at intra-
African points,” said the
Minister of Transport,
Dipuo Peters, during the
signing ceremony with
Namibia’s Minister of
Works and Transport,
Alpheus !Naruseb, earlier
this month.
The ‘fifth freedom’
allows an airline to carry
revenue traffic between
foreign countries as a part
of services connecting the
airline’s own country.
“Our bilateral
relationship is strategic
for both our countries
from a fiscal and import/
export perspective and
the economic nature
of our relationship is
interdependence, which
is the reason that as
South Africa we value our
relations,” commented
Peters.
She pointed out
that Africa needed to
consolidate its own air
transport market and
industry in order to remain
relevant. “The individual
African member states need
to support the regional
economic communities’
initiatives,” Peters said.
Air connections
South African
Airways (SAA)
operates 20
flights per week on the
Johannesburg-Windhoek
route, making it three
flights a day.
South African
Express operates
nine flights per
week on the Johannesburg-
Walvis Bay route and six
flights per week on the Cape
Town-Walvis Bay route.
South African
Airlink operates
11 flights per
week on the Cape Town-
Windhoek route, while Comair
operates seven flights on the
Johannesburg-Windhoek route.
Air Namibia operates
21 flights per week
on the Windhoek-
Johannesburg route, 14 flights on
the Windhoek-Cape Town route
and seven flights per week on the
Walvis Bay-Cape Town route.
