Ethiopian Airlines won’t stop robbing Malawians until our government steps up
We are not shocked, as you are, with revelations that Malawi Airlines has posted zero profits in five years but, at the same time, paid over K41 billion for aircraft sub leases, management fees and other payments to its strategic partner, Ethiopian Airlines (ET).
We are not shocked because we know that the liquidation of Air Malawi was all a cover up to mass fraud and corruption that grounded what was once Africa’s friendliest airline.
That liquidation, which saw ET claiming a 49 percent stake in our airline and we retained 51 percent, was all a hoax as it did not address the fundamental reasons why Air Malawi, all over sudden, got grounded.
What we know is that Air Malawi, because of poor leadership, was saddled with mountains of avoidable debts accumulated over years, billions of cash that went into voracious pockets of politicians.
One such country which Malawi government, through Air Malawi, owed so much is Morocco. Your government won’t tell you; but we can reveal to you that, at the point of liquidation, Air Malawi had a functional plane, an airbus, which they will not tell you, its whereabouts.
What they will lie to you is that, at the point of liquidation, Malawi had no plane, as such, it had to get all planes from ET. Foolish lie.
We can reveal to you that Morocco took the functional plane that we had as punishment for Malawi’s failure to pay the debts we owed them. They won’t tell you this because it’s embarrassing for a sovereign country but we will, because you need to know, tell you this.
What you, Malawians, need to know is that, at the point of negotiations and discussions, ET was furnished with all the necessary details of our wretchedness and they acted cleverly but with strategy. Despite having a 49 percent, which we know was all pseudo, ET knew that it has a tacit 100 percent as Malawi was in a desperate state and couldn’t argue its case.
Well here we are: Are you surprised that we have posted zero profits in five years but, at the same time, paid over K41 billion for aircraft sub leases, management fees and other payments to ET?
Well ET knows our weakness and it won’t stop milking us until our government makes tough decisions, serious ones.
There are three things government needs to do, right now. One, tell off ET and say goodbye. Two, engage other countries to have direct daily flights to Malawi. And three, engage rich Malawians and institutions, give them good concessions, to start an airline to serve and profit the nation.
If government doesn’t do that, well, we will remain chattels of ET, a kind of another systematic colonization.
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There is no strategic partner. Ethiopian airlines owns Malawian. Ethiopian airlines runs Malawian. So rest in peace whoever wrote this foolish uninformed article. And for all the dust eaters of Dowa and Mcp mbobo ridders, please stop blaming Dpp and whatever boogie man you have in your visions of jebus. This problem of having poor managed infrastructure started with Kamuzu Hastings Evil Banda, the father of detentions and imprisonment. He ruled for 30 years without improving any of the colonial buildings and used every nepotistic ideology while depressing living conditions for Malawians from other areas. So pitani mukadye fumbi la… Read more »
Very corrupt airlines. Even the ground staff will issue a confirmed ticket to you and when you arrive at airport you will be told the flight is full and you will go next day. Why because they have given your seat to someone you bribed them. It has happened to me many times.
This why I say, we need more than mindset change! And it have to start with the leadership! Like you can’t run a government with thieves and crooks you can’t run a airline, a parastatal, a company. Look for an example at our strong cash based grocery retail sector: We had our indigenous People’s Supermarkets countrywide. Nowadays, we depend on all kind of foreign managed grocery markets, like Shoprites, Sanaa’s, Chipiku Plus, Game…!
Air Malawi never owned an airbus, at the time it was liquidated the airline had two Boeing 737s, a 300 and 500 sseries. Air Malawi folded because of poor management, which resulted in over employment of the support team on one hand and lack of patriotism from travelling malawians who opted to fly south African airways for pety reasons. The airline had good engineers who despite experience were always underpaid, it only paid better wage to the pilots as a result most left for greener pasture. The end result was the outsourcing of engineering services which was very expensive for… Read more »
Air Malawi is stupidity
Who is the owner of the fleet? How much did they invest in? Who services the planes, who trains the pilots? Who is managing the company? Who pays for all the airport fees? How much investment does Malawi have in this company? It would present a better picture if these facts are presented. Otherwise the story here is incomplete. And I hope one day Malawi will have its own airline then we will understand how much profits we will make. Check in how Kenya Airways and South African Airways are performing and compare that with the Ethiopian Airways business model,… Read more »
Kenya and SAA are franchises of Dutch Airlines.
Mumamwa chani Nkulu. You can drink on me… I will take care of your bill.
This story borders on hearsays and speculations
The lease and management bills are okay as per normal business practice because whether you making profit or losses you still have to meet those bills. It should be an issue should the charges be excessive as per industry standards.
Yes Malawians need to know about the Air Craft and airbus positions.
Bakili muluz’s resume was the worst of all. He privatised most of our companies. Air Malawi was one of the best statutory corporations during Kamuzu Banda’s time. Anthu openga mwapanga bwanji.
Lekani katandula was liquidator for air Malawi, why did he let Morocco snatch the airbus? I think as liquidator he failed his country.