Botswana reports strong interest in new routes, renovating airports to increase capacity

Botswana Civil Aviation Authority stated (18-Mar-2010) seven international airlines and five local carriers responded to a High Level Technical Team committee request for interest in operating routes to/from Botswana. and five local companies have also shown interest. Singapore Airlines, Air Mauritius, Swiss Air and British Airways were among the international carriers that showed interest. Local carriers that applied include Flying Mission, Kgalagadi Express, Air Kavano and Moremi Air. The governments of Qatar, Ethiopia and United Arab Emirates had also pushed for a bilateral air services agreement to be signed with Botswana. Operations by the countries' carriers will possibly commence soon afterwards. Air Botswana also indicated it wanted to commence new services to Zambia and Angola. Botswana Government has decided on a national open skies policy and is currently renovating Gaborone, Francistown and Maun airports, to improve their capacity to handle larger aircraft. [more]