State-owned airlines often face a challenge that private carriers do not: balancing commercial returns with national development goals. Governments frequently expect national carriers to support tourism, facilitate trade, connect remote regions, and strengthen economic integration—even when some of those routes are not commercially viable.
For Air Botswana, that tension is becoming increasingly visible as the airline cuts loss-making routes while the government pushes for greater air connectivity to support tourism and economic growth. Speaking at the recently held AviaDev conference, Air Botswana General Manager Bao Mosinyi highlighted what he described as the challenge of balancing the airline’s national mandate with commercial realities.
As a state-owned carrier, Mosinyi said, Air Botswana occupies a unique position in the market. While private airlines are primarily driven by profitability, Air Botswana must also consider its role in enabling connectivity across Botswana and the region—even when certain routes do not generate attractive financial returns.
Its mandate, Mosinyi explained, remains a key consideration when assessing both existing and potential routes.
The challenge comes at a time when Botswana is intensifying efforts to grow tourism and improve air access to key markets. The government has set an ambitious target of increasing international tourist arrivals to 2.7 million by 2033—a goal that industry leaders say cannot be achieved without significantly improving air connectivity.
Tourism authorities have repeatedly stressed that Botswana remains constrained by limited direct international connections, making it difficult to fully exploit key source markets and improve direct access to major tourism destinations across the country.
Yet the same connectivity that policymakers view as essential for economic growth can present a commercial challenge for the national carrier.
Over the past year, Air Botswana has been forced to make difficult decisions about its regional network after several routes failed to perform as expected. The airline discontinued services between Gaborone and Durban, Gaborone and Windhoek, and Maun and Cape Town after the routes generated combined net losses of P44.5 million over a nine-month period between November 2024 and July 2025. The route suspensions formed part of a broader retrenchment strategy after an expansion drive launched in late 2024 failed to deliver the anticipated returns.
This exposed Air Botswana to a significant fleet mismatch. In its push for regional expansion, the airline introduced larger, specialised regional jet equipment designed for longer-haul, higher-capacity routes, including three Embraer aircraft—the 88-seater E175 and two 50-seater ERJ145s—on the assumption of sustained business and tourism demand across southern Africa. However, following the subsequent suspension of the new routes in early 2026, the airline was left with relatively expensive jet aircraft that are not consistently matched to viable commercial deployment within its remaining network.
Mosinyi said the airline’s fleet is larger and more diverse than its operational requirements justify. He told AviaDevdelegates that an airline of Air Botswana’s size should not be operating such a varied fleet, as multiple aircraft types increase maintenance, training and crew costs while limiting operational efficiency. The lack of fleet commonality, according to Mosinyi, is draining the airline’s finances.
“For an airline of our size, we should not be having the variety of fleet that we have,” he said.
These operational challenges have reignited a longstanding debate about the future ownership structure of the national carrier. During discussions at AviaDev, aviation experts noted that state-owned airlines often face competing commercial, political and developmental objectives, making it difficult to operate with the same flexibility as privately owned carriers.
While governments may prioritise national connectivity, economic development and strategic interests, commercial management teams are ultimately judged on financial performance and operational efficiency. The result is a tension that has affected numerous state-owned airlines across Africa. The state, experts noted, should concentrate on policy direction, regulation, and tax efficiency, while commercially viable activities are left to the private sector.
For Air Botswana, that debate is not new. The government has long maintained that privatisation remains a policy objective, although previous attempts to attract a strategic equity partner have struggled to gain traction because of the airline’s financial position and dependence on state support. Although Air Botswana recorded revenue of P330 million at the end of 2024, it continued to report losses between 2021 and December 2025, with its highest net loss reaching P204 million.
