■ BOTSWANA: Parliamentary inquest picks holes in Air Botswana's operations, finances.

A Batswana parliamentary inquest into the operations of state-owned national carrier, Air Botswana (BP) has uncovered purported oversights in the airline's fuel procurement, fleet selection and employee accountability procedures.

■ BOTSWANA: Qatar, Botswana ink a Bilateral Air Services Agreement.

The respective civil aviation authorities of Qatar and Botswana have concluded a Bilateral Air Services Agreement following a signing ceremony held in Doha recently. The ratification of the BASA comes after the deal was originally initialled by both states back in 2007.

 

■ BOTSWANA: Gaborone SSKIA suffers $53'000 worth of damage to roof in unspecified incident.

Following an unspecified incident which resulted in damage to the roof and its lightning conductor, the Botswana Government, the operators of Gaborone's Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA), have been forced to fork out USD53'000 (BWP430'000) to pay for emergency repair work.

● BOTSWANA: New Civil Aviation Act, Aviation Security Act now being actively enforced by government.

Two important Civil Aviation Laws have now come into force in Botswana - The Civil Aviation Act (2011) and the Aviation Security Act (2011). The laws were crafted following numerous deficiencies relating to the primary aviation law and other elements of Botswana’s safety oversight system and aviation security system, that were identified by the ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) in 2006 and Universal Security Audit Programme (USAP) of 2008.

■ BOTSWANA: Government fires Chinese firm Sinohydro over delays to Gaborone Airport Expansion project.

Fed up with continual delays and deadline setbacks, the Botswana Government has decided to fire the primary contractor on Gaborone's Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA) Expansion Project Phase 2, Chinese state construction firm Sinohydro, with 95% of the works completed.

■ BOTSWANA: Open Skies deal signed; will Air Botswana survive more competition?

The Botswana Government has recently signed two Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) with Mauritius in Gaborone agreements bringing to nine the number of BASAs signed - the other eight being with Belgium, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe.