Air Malawi hunting for a plane to lease
Air Malawi has not yet offered new international flight services as the public company is now busy hunting for yet another plane to lease.
This is despite the fact that the airline owns two Boeing 737’s which it cannot claim back after going through repairs at South African hangers.
Air Malawi Chief Executive Officer Patrick Chilambe said on Thursday that the soon to be leased aircraft would be in use by the first week of December this year.
The delay to bring back into service the two grounded Boeings has heavily led to the financial problems the parastatal is now going through as revenue the airline shrunk and it accumulated debt which some internal sources say it is hovering around K10 billion.
But Chilambe was not committed to lay bare how much debt Air Malawi has a significant development which has left the travelling public with only foreign airline options to travel on and jobs at the public company hanging in balance.
On the other hand government has been squeezed by Parliamentarians to give an honest stand on what is happening at Air Malawi.
But Transport and Public Infrastructure Minister Sidik Mia updated the house that government was considering the next move regarding the country’s airliner but ruled out liquidation.
He said the transport ministry is in the process of assessing the problem and a way forward on Air Malawi would be announced in two weeks.
Meanwhile, Chilambre disclosed that the ATR 42 would bounce back on Monday to service the domestic routes as well as fly to Harare in Zimbabwe, Lusaka in Zambia and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
