Good news for Namibia fans in Switzerland. Starting next year, Swiss holiday airline Edelweiss will fly from Zurich to Windhoek from 1 June to the end of October. There will be two non-stop flights per week – on Mondays and Fridays. They are already available for booking for June 2026.
This will increase the number of non-stop flights from Europe to Namibia to twelve per week. The German sister company Discover Airlines already flies to Windhoek ten times a week. There will be one flight a day from Frankfurt and three flights a week from Munich: on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
This will not change, assured Discover spokesperson Leonie Bueb when asked by Namibian.org. "We are very satisfied with the booking situation – both from Munich and Frankfurt," said Bueb. "We are delighted that Edelweiss is now expanding travel options from Europe once again."
Andreas Meier, Head of Corporate Communications at Edelweiss, confirmed that the new route is part of a coordinated strategy within the Lufthansa Group. Flights to Namibia were launched by Discover from Frankfurt, expanded by Munich this (European) summer, and will be expanded by Zurich by Edelweiss from summer 2026.
"This was planned jointly," said Meier, "and offers customers an optimal and combinable service." An Airbus A350-900 with 339 seats would be used on the Zurich-Windhoek route. With two flights a week, this means an additional capacity of almost 680 seats.
Demand from Switzerland has grown by a good 20 per cent since 2019, Meier said. "We expect the non-stop flight to significantly increase overall demand from Switzerland."
However, the flights have one disadvantage from the customer's point of view. Unlike Discover, Edelweiss flies to Windhoek during the day. Departure from Zurich is at 10:10 a.m., arrival in Windhoek at 7:40 p.m. This means that the first day of the holiday is spent on the plane. The return flight from Windhoek to Zurich is at night: departure at 9:40 p.m., landing at 7:35 a.m.
Anyone hoping that prices will fall as a result of the additional flights will be disappointed. At more than 900 Swiss francs (around 1,000 euros), Edelweiss is not really trying to undercut its German sister company Discover.
Which is not surprising, given that the flights are part of the Lufthansa Group's overall strategy. With these new non-stop flights, the group is probably targeting competitors who fly to Windhoek at lower prices but subject their customers to inconvenient stopovers in Addis Ababa (Ethiopian Airlines) or Johannesburg.
Sven-Eric Stender