History
The origins of the airline trace back to 1946, when South West Air Transport was established, starting operations in 1948. On 26 March 1959, it merged with Oryx Aviation to form South West Airways (Afrikaans: Suidwes Lugdiens). IATA membership was gained later that year.
Namibair was set up in 1963 as a charter airline, becoming a subsidiary company of Suidwes Lugdiens in 1966. Safmarine acquired a 50% stake in Suidwes in 1969, eventually boosting its participation to 85%. Both companies were merged into Namib Air in 1978.
The South-West African government became the major shareholder in 1982. Following the creation of the South-West Africa National Transport Corporation in 1986, Namib Air took over all air transport operations in the country. The airline was designated as the country's flag carrier in 1987.
On 6 August 1989, a Boeing 737-200 leased from South African Airways that flew the Windhoek–Johannesburg route inaugurated the carrier's jet era.
The company was re-christened again to the current name of Air Namibia in October 1991 (1991-10), after the independence of the country. The early 1990s also saw the launch of long-haul services to Europe; the Windhoek–Frankfurt route started being flown in 1991 twice a week using a Boeing 747SP, and London was included into the route network in 1992.
It was re-absorbed into the Namibian government after an injection of US$3,700,000 ($5,275,786 in 2012) in 1998, following the precarious cash position it was led into by the Namibian state-owned holding company TransNamib.
The airline joined the African Airlines Association in 2000.
Read more about this topic: Air Namibia
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