Air Namibia’s future in doubt as leader runs out of patience

Bloomberg

Air Namibia grounded all international flights not already wiped out by the coronavirus after the country’s president, Hage Geingob, said the state carrier should be liquidated.
The southwest African nation’s carrier has received about 8.3 billion Namibian dollars ($485 million) in government funding over the past two decades and Geingob said earlier this month the country “cannot afford to keep rescuing a loss-making airline.”
“Air Namibia must be liquidated, we have a serious problem, it must be restructured, it is not making any profits and it is just being bailed out,” the president told lawmakers following a June 4 national address. “We must do something about it.”
His comments have made some creditors and suppliers nervous, Chief Financial Officer Werner Schuckmann told the Namibian Sun. The airline cancelled charter flights to repatriate people stranded by coronavirus travel bans, though domestic services remain available for booking. Namibia’s borders have been closed to commercial travellers since March.
The national carrier’s precarious position is being replicated around the world as travel restrictions to help contain the Covid-19 pandemic threaten the survival of all but the strongest airlines.
Several governments have responded with bailout deals, with Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM among those receiving packages. But others have been more hesitant given the burden of relief packages required to shore up pandemic-ravaged economies.
South African Airways, which has been in a local form of bankruptcy protection since December, was refused a state payout in April and came close to liquidation.