LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Hot headed Foreign Affairs Minister Eisenhower Mkaka chartered a Malawian Airlines plane to Somaliland leaving hundreds of customers stranded after the airline canceled flights.
We can reveal that Mkaka who is on an ‘official visit’ to Somaliland demanded that government charters the plane for him and a few officers from Foreign Affairs ministry.
“I am almost always outside the country representing Malawians on foreign policy. I need a plane dedicated to this great task. Find a way to make it happen,” ordered Mkaka.
Then Malawian Airlines canceled all their flights and gave the only plane they have to Mkaka to travel to Somaliland.
Malawia Airlines does not fly to Somaliland which has nothing that will significantly benefit Malawi.
This is the first time in the history of the country where a mere cabinet minister would charter a plane leaving commercial passengers stranded.
Pictures from Somaliland shows Mkaka disembarking from a Malawian Airlines plane at Hargeisa International Airport in Somaliland Saturday afternoon.
Mkaka is said to be one of the powerful cabinet ministers who has publicly boasted that he cannot be ‘touched’ by President Lazarus Chakwera as he is the one who controls the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) which Chakwera leads but do not have grassroots support.
LILONGWE (MaraviPost): Malawian Airlines Limited is the flag carrier airline of Malawi, based in Lilongwe and with its hub at Lilongwe International Airport. It was established in 2012 after the liquidation of Air Malawi, the former national airline.
However, since its inception the Airline has serviced clients with Equipment in dis-repair. Seats filthy and unclean. Some of the seats had no cushions
Malawi Airlines assign seat without Cushion to passenger
Selina Mulima a Passenger on her facebook page wrote On Wednesday 18th I was allocated seat no. 17B on Malawian Airlines. The seat had/has no cushion. Someone help me understand this.
My seat was filthy, uncleaned” M Sangher (Malawi) 4th December 2019
? Trip Verified | Johannesburg to
Lilongwe. Was originally booked on SA170 but due to their strike I was rebooked
onto Malawian Airlines ET21. The whole process was a total mess. Boarding gate
staff pulled aside 5 or 6 passengers because they did not scan passports at the
check in counters – made us wait until the entire flight was boarded and then
scanned us and boarded us. After that, I was seated in 1C business class. My
seat was filthy, uncleaned and plastic parts of the seat were broken and
cracked. The tray table for food was broken and sat at an angle with the food
tray sitting on the edges delicately and precariously!! Hostess did not seem
bothered about this and still place food and drink on the wobbly table which
was frightening. Food was abundant, it was very tasty and enjoyable. Could not
fault it. Aircraft information card was fool of dried food – obviously not
cleaned for ages. Will never want to be on this aircraft again if I had a
choice.
luggage is left on the tarmac”
Z Aldworth (South Africa) 15th July 2019
Not Verified | A smaller aircraft is currently flying
between Blantyre to Johannesburg, due to the runway construction at Chileka
Airport. Unfortunately, when the plane is full, luggage is deliberately left on
the tarmac. I understand this is for safety reasons, but some communication
from Malawian Airlines would be really appreciated. Or a simple solution will
be to restrict passengers to 1 piece of luggage until the runway is completed
and the bigger plane is flying again.
“no idea where our bags are”
G Fairley (United Kingdom) 30th April 2019 Not Verified | Due to a recent and short notice government decision to close the longer runway at Chileka for maintenance (which we only found out from reading a local newspaper), Malawian Airlines only other larger aircraft, a 737, cannot be used. So, flight schedules were altered after we arrived in Blantyre and the smaller Q400 was used instead. As we taxied for takeoff, I spotted a trailer full of luggage (with my easily identifiable suitcase on the top) tucked away behind 2 military helicopters. Clearly the right decision had been made not to overload the smaller plane – by intentionally concealing a trailer full of bags. No-one at Chileka advised any passengers, which was quite underhand and just shunted the problem onto staff at OR Tambo. When I told the other passengers about the background reason, they were understandably as angry as I was. We had two onward flights and our bags were not checked through to our destination due to advice from our travel agent. I really felt for the family travelling to Brazil, who’s luggage was also left on the tarmac. Had Malawian Airlines check in staff advised us of the overweight issue we would have checked the bags with destination labels. So now, we’re back in the UK, no idea where our bags are and not confident, they’ll be intact if they do eventually reach us. Security at Chileka is ‘relaxed’. And the reality is this problem will exponentially escalate as the excess baggage problem continues rolling over into successive flights. Malawian Airlines just need to be honest with their passengers and explain the situation! Nobody will dispute a safety decision but implementing it in a sneaky and underhand way just aggravates the situation. If you are booked with Malawian Air from Blantyre to Johannesburg, or Blantyre to Lilongwe (Blantyre is the middle stop for the aircraft to pick up passengers for the service between Johannesburg and Lilongwe) over the next few months ask direct questions about luggage capacity on the aircraft, and insist on answers when you are checking in for your flight, and take as much in your hand luggage as you can
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