Tuesday, August 1, 2017

END FOR SWAZI AIRWAYS



The national airline in Swaziland that was created with fanfares and claims it would serve routes across Africa has closed down and all 23 employees have been retrenched.

Confirmation of the closure and staff redundancies came through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security First Quarter (April to June 2017) Performance report, which was tabled in the House of Assembly. 

The airline closed for business in April 2017 when it became clear the tiny kingdom could not afford a single aircraft.

Even so, E20 million had been spent on leasing a 29-year-old Boeing 737-300 that never once flew commercially. In addition, an estimated E750,000 a month was paid to airline staff who had no work to do.

Swazi Airways was intended to replace the already defunct Royal Swaziland National Airways. The plan to launch the new airline came after the opening of King Mswati III (KM3) Airport. The airport, built in the wilderness in southeast Swaziland about 70 km from a major city, was the brainchild of the King, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The airport that was originally named Sikhuphe was dubbed a “white elephant” and “vanity project” by critics outside the kingdom. The cost of building the airport will never be known, but estimates are that it cost at least E300 million.

The airport officially opened in March 2014 and since then the only passenger-carrying airline to use it has been Swazi Airlink, which is part-owned by the Swazi Government. Despite repeated promises from the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) that there was interest from major international airlines to fly into KM3, none have down so.

In December 2015, the Sunday Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, and described by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a review on media freedom in the kingdom, as  a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ reported, that Swazi Airways would fly to 10 countries once it had become fully operational.  The destinations were the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Botswana. 

At the end of March 2017 it became clear that the kingdom could not afford the airline. Swazi Airways decided to drop its lease on the Boeing, but was left with a E6 million debt to the company that leased it.

See also

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

AIRLINK FORCED TO USE KING’S AIRPORT

AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINK’

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