KLM Airlines to fly to Windhoek

Yet another airline has announced its intention to expand its services in Africa and start flying to Windhoek.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines yesterday announced that it will expand its flight schedule in Africa to include Windhoek by 30 October after the governments of Netherlands and Namibia signed an agreement in Swakopmund last week.
This follows Qatar Airlines’ recent announcement that it would start flying to Windhoek by September while the South African Airline FlyBlue Crane is also planning to start flying to Windhoek soon. Condor Airlines recently opened the Munich and Windhoek route.
According to a statement issued by KLM the flight schedule for its three existing flights to Luanda in Angola will be adapted to make it possible to fly on to Windhoek and back after a short stopover.
The flights to Luanda and Windhoek will be operated using 243-seater Airbus 330-200 plane.
Flights will depart on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays from Amsterdam and arrive the next day in Luanda and will proceed to Windhoek.
The return flight will depart on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Mondays from Windhoek and land in Luanda and from there the flight will depart from Luanda and arrive in Amsterdam the next day.
“Based on our strong position in Europe, you can see that we regularly find opportunities to strengthen our international position,” says KLM CEO Pieter Elbers.
“Having extended our destinations on the North American continent this year to Salt Lake City and Miami, and to Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Astana (Kazakhstan), we have now added another KLM destination in Africa. We operate 55 flights a week to destinations in Africa.”
According to the statement, KLM’s strength lies in the tightly-knit, worldwide network it has built up with its partners. This network links just about every important economic region in the world with the Netherlands and with each other.
When expanding its network, KLM pays keen attention to developments in a region or country’s economic situation and tourist industry, which offer opportunities for profitable growth.
“Namibia is both economically and politically stable. Its stunning nature attracts a great deal of high-end ecotourism,” KLM says.
KLM offers 145 worldwide destinations, whereof 68 long-haul and 77 medium-haul destinations.
Windhoek is KLM’s 12th destination in Africa. It already flies to Luanda (Angola), Johannesburg and Cape Town (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya), Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Entebbe (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Lagos (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana) and Cairo (Egypt). Together with its partners, the airline serves 56 different destinations in Africa.

ELLANIE SMIT