A new Bostwana-based start-up airline – Kalahari Airways – plans to launch daily flights from Cape Town to London Gatwick, with a 30-minute stopover in Gaborone, from early 2014.
Behind the airline is CEO, Denis Coghlan, a former pilot of the South African Ministry of Defence, who says he has “extensive experience in transportation and, in particular, aviation”.
The airline intends to deploy three ex-Qantas B747-400s on the route. It requires a lease purchase facility of $30m for the acquisition of these, as well as a standby facility of $10m to comply with the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana’s (CAAB) working capital minimums. Coghlan explains: “I've been trying to raise the 25% of the sponsor’s contribution I need to qualify for funding by Botswana Development Corporation but without success.” Coghlan has now started a crowd funding campaign to raise the necessary funds.
Coghlan told Tourism Update he has been contemplating the launch of flights since the day British Airways ceased operations on the GBE-LON route. He refutes claims that BA pulled the route because it was unsuccessful. “It is not true to say they were unsuccessful. The last year they operated on the route, they carried 36 000 passengers from Gaborone to London. The number of available passengers has tripled since then.”
