Who is the Real Force behind Westair?

In the next few months, those who make FlyWestair possible will be introduced to you, one by one. You will meet our pilots, our ground-crew, those who work behind the scenes in finance and operations, in maintenance, as trainees and strategists, deal-makers and groundbreakers. Meet the first of many faces behind Westair.

Wepner Mulder - Flight Operations Manager

Career growth offers new opportunities and new challenges. For a pilot it means never stagnating, always seeking to explore new horizons. Wepner Mulder followed the trajectory of prop-planes to ever bigger aircraft until he was piloting jets in Angola and caught the attention of Westair’s management, who at that time was looking for experienced pilots for the Embraer Jet, Tatekulu. The evolution of the company was an attractive proposition and made him settle his family permanently in Namibia. “There’s no place I’d rather be,” he says. Three years on and Wepner’s role has evolved into not only managing aircraft and pilots but also helping train the next generation of jet pilots to support the company’s growth.

Martha Joshua - Check-in Management

“Do your work for the Lord, not for the company, then you will always be diligent.” This is the guiding philosophy of Martha Joshua, who has worked at Westair since 2016, starting out as a student at Signa before becoming the Girl Friday in the office. She now works at FlyWestair’s check-in desk. Working with passengers can be difficult, she says, especially as paying for something raises certain expectations. And yet she enjoys meeting the faces behind the names on the passenger list, meeting the people she has spoken to over the phone. The best part of her work, though, is being part of the company’s growth.

Petrus Barlow - Ground Staff

Some elements make success inevitable. The first is a willingness to learn. The second, a type of perfectionism that abhors failure but learns from mistakes. And the last is taking responsibility. At thirteen years old Petrus Barlow needed an income and offered to work in the garden of Gustaf Holz, one of the first partners of Westair. Barlow describes the relationship that ensued as becoming adopted by Gustaf, and it was this serendipitous meeting that led Barlow to Eros, where he trained as a fuel technician for BP, the supplier of avgas to the airport. It’s a dangerous occupation with strict procedures, and Barlow went through numerous courses and training sessions. All the while he was asking questions, curious about the activities around him, about stock-taking and ordering and all the admin that comes with it. When BP left Namibia the company was bought by Westair and renamed Eros Fuel. It was then that Barlow was offered shares in the new company. “It was the feeling, ‘I am alive’,” he remembers. This tangible recognition of his hard work was a turning point in his life.

Fred Ribeiro - Business Development Manager

Sometimes it takes a roundtrip to get to your final destination. Fred Ribeiro made a couple of stops around the world before finally landing at Westair. Born in Luanda, Angola, Fred’s family moved to Namibia when he was twelve and couldn’t speak a word of English. At fourteen he was working in his parents’ guesthouse, assisting with clients and learning about the hospitality industry. He can therefore be forgiven for immersing himself in the industry, first in Britain, then Cape Town and the Middle East before heading home. By then his aptitude for marketing was showing, as was a growing passion for aviation. The family business was no longer an option, and instead Fred began to work towards his Commercial Pilot License at Signa. It was then that he caught the attention of management, who quickly scooped him up and threw him in at the deep end. “Those first three months were a struggle,” he admits, but then it all fell into place quickly. As the Business Development Manager he regularly gets feedback from clients, and loves it. “It’s like a roadmap of what to do.”

Deslon Kondja - ERJ Engineer

Ghana, Burkina Faso, Italy. Just a few of the places where Deslon Kondja has been based. Taking a year off after matric to improve his final marks, Deslon worked parttime at Eros Airport and became an assistant mechanic. He was lucky, he says, because at that time the company he was working for, COMAV, needed to train a black engineer for BEE compliance and funded his studies. Deslon went on to obtain an EASA licence and B1B2 for the 135, working for Air Namibia, picking up skills and being challenged constantly. Later, after his contract with an Italian company ended he came home for a little vacation, which was when he was approached by Westair to become the project leader for the maintenance of Tatekulu, then the company’s first and only Embraer. Deslon had the necessary qualifications. “An aeroplane is not a one-man job,” he says, ”Maintaining an aeroplane is the result of a team of people working together.” Working with people is the most important part of his job, he says.