2 June 2026
The government of Botswana injected BWP523 million pula (USD39 million) into loss-making Air Botswana (BP, Gaborone) between 2021 and December 2025, and the state-owned carrier is now seeking to convert what its chief executive called an “irresponsible” BWP250 million (USD18.7 million) government loan into equity because it cannot repay the debt.
“This organisation has been a cash-losing machine each of these years,” newly appointed general manager Bao Mosinyi told the county’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises recently.
He said that with interest, the government loan advanced in 2018 had ballooned to BWP304 million (USD23 million). The airline had explained to the finance ministry that it was unable to repay the loan, had requested that it be converted into equity, and was awaiting the ministry’s response.
During the period under review, the airline’s best performance in terms of revenue had been BWP330 million (USD24.7 million) at the end of 2024 with a net loss of BWP204 million (USD15.2 million), he said.
According to Mosinyi, who was appointed three months ago, Air Botswana has struggled with weak governance, executive vacancies, grounded aircraft, pilot shortages despite employing 30 of them, and years of delayed audits.
“Our problem at Air Botswana is mostly a governance problem; it’s an issue of not having a board and an issue of not having an executive management. And from there, everything else goes downhill,” he commented.
“You can tell that we are a disorganised airline,” Mosinyi said, pointing to a lack of board continuity and longstanding vacancies in executive management, with all six executive positions below general manager filled in an acting capacity.
In an interview with ch-aviation since his parliamentary appearance, Mosinyi said Air Botswana was focused on returning its entire fleet to service in the next two months, stabilising operations, and restoring suspended regional routes.
ADS-B data shows that its sole E175, A2-ABE (msn 17000327), resumed service domestically and regionally to South Africa (Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and Cape Town International) on May 29 after having been grounded for a month.
Mosinyi told parliament that the E175, acquired second-hand for BWP200 million (USD15 million), was grounded after pilot certifications for the type expired due to what he described as poor planning.
This resulted in the suspension of flights to Cape Town Lusaka, and Harare International. The airline brought in a training pilot from Europe to re-certify crews.
Meanwhile, resulting increased pressure on the airline’s two ATR72-600 turboprops flying domestic routes and to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo, ended up with those pilots accumulating too many duty flying hours, resulting in the airline cancelling all flights for one day on May 7. Mosinyi said that while nine pilots had recently resigned, 20 are inactive but still on payroll.
He also revealed that the return from Westair Aviation in Namibia of Air Botswana’s two E145s, acquired second-hand for BWP146 million (USD11 million), plus an engine swap for the sole grounded E170, would cost BWP65 million (USD4.8 million).
Mosinyi told ch-aviation that the two E145s are due back from Namibia in early June, while the grounded E170 is expected to return to service after an engine replacement and heavy maintenance check.
Source: https://shorturl.at/vW4bJ
