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Mw Airlines Profits After 7 Barren Years

Mw Airlines Profits After 7 Barren Years

The country’s flag carrier, Malawi Airlines, has posted 4 million United States Dollars (about K4 billion) profit in this year, after seven years of making losses.

The Airlines board chairperson George Partridge confirmed the development to Zodiak Online.

“Yes, I can confirm that Malawi Airlines has turned around, for the past nine months up to March 2022 we made a profit of about 4 million dollars, that compared to a loss of 4 million dollars the previous year,” said Partridge.

He said the losses came because the Airline was a startup company and that they projected to start making profits after a five year gestation period.

“It’s not a strange thing that the company was making losses, it was in the plan that in the first five years the company would make losses and then it would take off thereafter.”

In the years according to Partridge the Airlines was developing routes which also required a lot of time and money.

After five years, when the company was about to start making profit, Covid-19 hit and the company spent seven months without operating.

“During the Covid-19 period, our flights were grounded and we went for seven months without generating revenue but we still had to service our staff,” he added.

This according to Partridge led to the depletion of their working capital. The company then requested for a bail out from their shareholders.

Meanwhile economist Dr. Betchani Tchereni says the development demonstrates that with proper management, the airline business can be more profitable. He said it also offers an opportunity for Malawi to learn how the business is run.

“It’s a rare occurrence, many airlines are having problems making profits and this is a very delicate business to run.

“This just shows that it's possible for the business to thrive in the country, it's also possible for us to learn how Malawi Airlines is being operated by Ethiopian Airlines,” said Dr. Tchereni

Owned by the Malawi government (51% shares) and Ethiopian Airlines (49% shares), Malawi Airlines was formed in July 2013 following the collapse of Air Malawi. It is operated by Ethiopian Airlines under a management contract with Johannesburg as its major profitable route.

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Last modified on Tuesday, 07/06/2022

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