Air Malawi Limited was the state-owned national airline of Malawi, based in Blantyre, which operated regional passenger services. Because of its financial situation, the airline was placed in voluntary liquidation, the Malawi Government announced in November 2012, and flights have been suspended since February 2013.
The airline began operations in 1964 as a subsidiary of Central African Airways, and later became independent and the national airline of Malawi. With the exception of short-lived long-haul flights to London in the 1970s, the airline has always concentrated on domestic and regional flights, from its main base at Chileka International Airport, Blantyre.
Air Malawi frequently had financial difficulties, and the Malawian government attempted to privatise the airline on two occasions without success. The first attempt in 2003 failed because the successful bidder, in partnership with South African Airways, was unable to post a security bond. The second attempt in 2007 failed after disagreements over the terms with the bidder, Comair of South Africa. The government, through its agent the Privatisation Commission, announced in September 2012 that it had embarked on another search to identify a strategic equity partner for Air Malawi, and in July 2013 Ethiopian Airlines was confirmed as the partner
1967 saw CAA being wound down, and Air Malawi became independent, giving Malawi a national airline. The airline introduced two ex-CAA Vickers Viscounts, and a Beech C55 Baron joined the fleet. By the end of 1967, the DC-3 was operating on all Air Malawi domestic services. Central African Airways was officially dissolved on 31 December 1967, and responsibility for all flights passed onto the three now independent airlines (Zambia Airways, Air Malawi and Air Rhodesia), of which Air Malawi was officially established by an Act of Parliament in 1967. Membership in the International Air Transport Association was attained on 1 January 1968. In June 1989, the airline ordered two Boeing 737-500s, but before delivery the order was reduced to one Boeing 737-300, the first of which arrived in May 1991. The HS-748 was also replaced in 1991 with an ATR 42, and a Dornier 228 was introduced into the fleet in December 1993. The government decided to privatise Air Malawi in 2000. 110 employees were laid off in March 2002 in order to help keep costs under control, with Mathews Chikaonda, the former Malawian Finance Minister noting that the airline was overstaffed and was a drain on the coffers of the government.
After the Malawian government approved a bid by South African Airways (SAA) and Crown Aviation to take a stake in Air Malawi, in April 2003, the deal with SAA to support the airline fell through. The Malawi Privatisation Committee stated that the bidders would not pay a US$250,000 security bond, and the government wanted SAA to take an equity stake in the airline, whilst an SAA executive said that the airline had an interest in supporting Air Malawi, but it was more important for the airline to make its investment in Air Tanzania work.
In November 2007, it was announced that the Malawian government was in talks with Comair of South Africa over a partnership deal with Air Malawi. The deal would have seen Comair acquiring the air traffic rights of Air Malawi, some of the assets including a Boeing 737-300, and the launching of a new airline to be called Comair Malawi. It was alleged that Comair was only interested in acquiring the 737-300 In the 2007 financial year, Air Malawi posted a profit of K135 million, an improvement on the K854 million loss it posted in 2006.
In September 2008, it was announced that the Malawian government had agreed to sell a 49% stake in Air Malawi to Comair, with Roy Commsy, Malawian Deputy Transport Minister stating that the government insisted on a 49% stake as being in the best interests of the nation.
In August 2009, it was announced that Air Malawi was in negotiations with Zambezi Airlines for a strategic partnership.
In October 2009, Air Malawi started an e-commerce project to cut down costs and provide realtime access to reservations for online customers and travel agents.
Liquidation of Air Malawi and creation of Malawi Airlines (2012–2013)
Ethiopian Airlines was reported as moving closer to acquiring a 49pc share in Air Malawi, after the Private Public Partnership (PPP) commission of Malawi declared it the "preferred bidder" to be a strategic equity partner in the soon-to-be restructured Malawi Airlines, intending it to be part of its strategy to form a Southern African hub, according to a senior management member at Ethiopian Airlines.
Corporate affairs
Ownership and subsidiaries
Air Malawi was wholly owned by the Government of Malawi.
Because the airline was in voluntary liquidation, through the Privatisation Commission (PC), the government restructured Air Malawi; it created a new company, Air Malawi (2012) Limited, as a step towards selection of a competent strategic equity partner (SEP) to acquire new shares in Air Malawi through a recapitalisation scheme, said PC chief executive officer Jimmy Lipunga. He said to sustain the country's Bilateral Air Services Agreements, the level of participation within the SEP should bring the participation of Malawian nationals, both with the SEP and government shareholding, to 51 per cent.
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Destinations
Air Malawi operated to the following destinations, .
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|bgcolor=#98FB98 width=20pt align=center|<sup>†</sup>||Hub
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|bgcolor=#FFD1DC width=20pt align=center|<sup>¤</sup>||Focus city
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! width=100px|City
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|Blantyre||||align=center|BLZ||align=center|FWCL||bgcolor=#98FB98|Chileka International Airport||align=center|
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|Vickers VC-10
|1
|1979
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