Air Botswana

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Air Botswana
IATA
BP		 ICAO
BOT		 Callsign
BOTSWANA
Founded 1972
Hubs Sir Seretse Khama International Airport
Frequent flyer program Teemane Club
Fleet size 6
Destinations 9
Headquarters Gaborone
Key people Lance Brogden (General Manager)
Website: http://www.airbotswana.co.bw

Air Botswana is the national airline of Botswana, based in Gaborone. It operates scheduled domestic and regional services, as well as charter services. Its main base is Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, Gaborone[1].

Contents

[edit] History

The airline was established and started operations in April 1972. It was formed to succeed Botswana Airways, which had replaced Botswana National Airways in 1969. It was taken over by the government in April 1988. Partial privatisation, originally expected in 2004, has been delayed. It is wholly owned by the Botswana government and has 314 employees (as of March 2007)[1]. An Air Botswana aircraft was featured in the film The Gods Must Be Crazy.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

On 11 October 1999, an Air Botswana captain, Chris Phatswe, boarded a parked ATR 42 aircraft (tail number: A2-ABB) at Khama International Airport in the early morning and took off. Once in the air, he asked by radio to speak to President Festus Mogae, Air Botswana's general manager, the station commander, the central Gaborone Police station and his girlfriend, among others. Because the president was out of the country, he was allowed to speak to Vice President Seretse Ian Khama. In spite of all attempts to persuade him to land and discuss his grievances, he stated he was going to commit suicide by crashing into some planes on the apron. After a total flying time of about two hours, mostly circling the airport, he did two loops and then crashed at 200 knots (230 mph) into Air Botswana's two other ATR 42s that were parked on the apron. Phatswe was killed but there were no other casualties. Airline sources say the pilot had been grounded on medical reasons, refused reinstatement and regrounded until February 2000. Air Botswana operations were crippled, as the airline temporarily had only a single aircraft left, a BAe-146, which was grounded at the time with technical problems.[2]

[edit] Destinations

As of June 2008, Air Botswana operates scheduled passenger flights to the following destinations:[3]

City Airport Code Airport Name Aircraft Remarks
IATA ICAO
Botswana
Francistown FRW FBFT Francistown Airport ATR42 9 weekly flights to GBE
Gaborone GBE FBSK Sir Seretse Khama International Airport ATR42 - BAe146 Main Hub - Flights to FRW, BBK, MUB, JNB and HRE
Kasane BBK FBKE Kasane Airport ATR42 3 weekly flights to GBE
Maun MUB FBMN Maun Airport ATR42 - BAe 146 Focus City - 9 weekly flights to GBE and 12 weekly to JNB
South Africa
Johannesburg JNB FAJS OR Tambo International Airport BAe146 27 weekly flights to GBE and 12 to MUB
Zimbabwe
Harare HRE FVHA Harare Airport ATR42 2 weekly flights

According to the aviation magazine AERO International, Air Botswana has problems with hiring enough people, resulting in the cancellation of several flights. [4]

[edit] Fleet

The Air Botswana fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of December 2007)[1] :

Air Botswana Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers
(Business/Economy)		 Routes Tails
ATR 42-500 3 50 (6/44) Domestic and to HRE A2-ABN; A2-ABO; A2-ABP
BAe 146-100 2 82 (12/70) International flights A2-ABD; A2-ABF
Total number of aircraft 5


[edit] Previously operated

As of August 2006 the airline also operated[5] :

In 2005 Air Botswana was to refurbish its fleet of ATR 42 aircraft. It had increased utilisation of its BAe 146 and wanted to lease another aircraft to expand its route network and capacity on key routes. Towards the end of 2005 a frequent flyer programme would be introduced and online booking an e-ticketing by the end of 2006. [6]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Flight International 27 March 2007
  2. ^ Air Botswana ATR crash
  3. ^ Air Botswana timetable
  4. ^ AERO International
  5. ^ Flight International, 3-9 October 2006
  6. ^ Airliner World, September 2005)
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Members of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA)