Airlines of Africa
Despite the need for air travel on the continent, African airlines have regularly been plagued with issues of frequent government interference, mismanagement, poor safety records, debt, old aircraft and bad services etc. These are just a few of the problems leading to an unending list of defunct airlines.
But there are a few airlines in Africa challenging the odds such as Asky Airlines and RwandAir despite majority shares owned by the Togolese and Rwandan governments respectively. Asky Airlines and RwandAir have one of the youngest and modern fleet of NG (New Generation) aircraft.
"There are more than one billion people on the African continent, which is home to just 3% of the world's aviation business, It is clear that the continent remains in desperate need of improved and affordable aviation connectivity."
-Ed Winter, CEO of Tanzania-based fastjet.
The reasons for taking such a small share of the aviation market have been the same for decades: poor infrastructure, stalled liberalization, high taxes and fuel charges.
-cnn.com
ASKY Airlines is a passenger airline founded on the initiative of West African governments, and has its head office in Lomé, Togo. It operates across several West and Central African countries, operating out of its hub at Lomé-Tokoin Airport. Originally planned for April 2009, the first revenue flight took place on 15 January 2010. ASKY Airlines serves 18 scheduled destinations throughout West and Central Africa from its hub at Lome (July 2015).
RwandAir Limited is the flag carrier airline of Rwanda It operates domestic and international services to East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa and the Middle East from its main base at Kigali International Airport in Kigali and is 99% owned by the Government of Rwanda.
Air Rwanda that ceased operations during the genocide, to ensure continued operations of the airline the government took over and re branded the airline. RwandAir began operations on 1 December 2002 as the new national carrier for Rwanda under the name Rwandair Express (with passenger air transportation as the core activity). In March 2009, the airline registered a new trademark "RwandAir Ltd" which is its current operating name, officially re-branded from Rwandair Express to RwandAir.
Many airlines adopt the the Hub and Spoke model. A hub is a central airport that flights are routed through and spokes are the routes that planes take out of the hub airport. This model based on the 6th freedom of the air enables airlines increase their passenger load factor contrary to the 5th and 7th freedoms of the air. Most major airlines have multiple hubs for reasons of efficiency. Asky has Lomé-Tokoin Airport as its hub and RwandAir operates from Kigali International Airport.
Codeshare agreement enables airlines grow their network especially on routes with low to moderate demand and countries with restrictions. Asky is able to connect flights in its network to various points in the Ethiopian Airlines network, with whom it has codeshares. Like wise RwandAir codeshares with Brussels Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways and Turkish Airlines
Aircraft age is very crucial in profit making Airline business. Young aircraft are more efficient and means savings on fuel, scheduled and maintenance costs. As of June 2017, ASKY Airlines operated aircraft with an average age of 5 years i.e B737NG (3), B738NG (1) and Dash 8 Q400 (4) leased from Ethiopian Airlines. RwandAir Also has a young and modern fleet as of June 2017 A330-300 (1), A330-200 (1), B737-800 (4), B737-700 (2), CRJ900ER (2) and Dash 8 Q400 (2)
Leasing over purchase also enables airlines or startup Airline become less capital intensive than cash purchase, shifts the residual value risk to the lessor, acquire tax write offs than financing and allows for flexibility.
There can be no one prescribed solution to make Airlines in Africa successful but with set objectives, goals and targets like Ethiopian Airlines started “Vision 2010” in 2005, which aimed to increase passenger traffic to 3 million, revenue to US$1 billion and employees to 6,000 by 2010. By the year 2010 Ethiopian had exceeded all goals set in “Vision 2010” and the company's net profit for the fiscal year ended 2010-6-30 was US$121.4 million.The results were attributed in part to an aggressive marketing campaign and major cost cutting measures.
In 2010 Ethiopian adopted "Vision 2025", a 15-year development strategy, under which the airline anticipates increasing its fleet to 120, the number of destinations to 90, carrying more than 18 million passengers and 720,000 tonnes (710,000 long tons; 790,000 short tons) of cargo, with 17,000 employees.″Vision 2025″ also considers a fourfold expansion of the capacity building for trainees in the airline's aviation academy.
Source Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_airlines_of_Africa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RwandAir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASKY_Airlines
http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/10-budget-airlines-africa/index.html
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2016-12-02/205903
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2359/how-do-airlines-pay-for-their-planes
http://flyasky.com/asky/
https://rwandair.com/
But there are a few airlines in Africa challenging the odds such as Asky Airlines and RwandAir despite majority shares owned by the Togolese and Rwandan governments respectively. Asky Airlines and RwandAir have one of the youngest and modern fleet of NG (New Generation) aircraft.
 |
| RwandAir A330-200 |
"There are more than one billion people on the African continent, which is home to just 3% of the world's aviation business, It is clear that the continent remains in desperate need of improved and affordable aviation connectivity."
-Ed Winter, CEO of Tanzania-based fastjet.
 |
| Asky Airlines B737-700 |
The reasons for taking such a small share of the aviation market have been the same for decades: poor infrastructure, stalled liberalization, high taxes and fuel charges.
-cnn.com
ASKY Airlines is a passenger airline founded on the initiative of West African governments, and has its head office in Lomé, Togo. It operates across several West and Central African countries, operating out of its hub at Lomé-Tokoin Airport. Originally planned for April 2009, the first revenue flight took place on 15 January 2010. ASKY Airlines serves 18 scheduled destinations throughout West and Central Africa from its hub at Lome (July 2015).
RwandAir Limited is the flag carrier airline of Rwanda It operates domestic and international services to East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa and the Middle East from its main base at Kigali International Airport in Kigali and is 99% owned by the Government of Rwanda.
Air Rwanda that ceased operations during the genocide, to ensure continued operations of the airline the government took over and re branded the airline. RwandAir began operations on 1 December 2002 as the new national carrier for Rwanda under the name Rwandair Express (with passenger air transportation as the core activity). In March 2009, the airline registered a new trademark "RwandAir Ltd" which is its current operating name, officially re-branded from Rwandair Express to RwandAir.
Many airlines adopt the the Hub and Spoke model. A hub is a central airport that flights are routed through and spokes are the routes that planes take out of the hub airport. This model based on the 6th freedom of the air enables airlines increase their passenger load factor contrary to the 5th and 7th freedoms of the air. Most major airlines have multiple hubs for reasons of efficiency. Asky has Lomé-Tokoin Airport as its hub and RwandAir operates from Kigali International Airport.
Codeshare agreement enables airlines grow their network especially on routes with low to moderate demand and countries with restrictions. Asky is able to connect flights in its network to various points in the Ethiopian Airlines network, with whom it has codeshares. Like wise RwandAir codeshares with Brussels Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways and Turkish Airlines
Aircraft age is very crucial in profit making Airline business. Young aircraft are more efficient and means savings on fuel, scheduled and maintenance costs. As of June 2017, ASKY Airlines operated aircraft with an average age of 5 years i.e B737NG (3), B738NG (1) and Dash 8 Q400 (4) leased from Ethiopian Airlines. RwandAir Also has a young and modern fleet as of June 2017 A330-300 (1), A330-200 (1), B737-800 (4), B737-700 (2), CRJ900ER (2) and Dash 8 Q400 (2)
Leasing over purchase also enables airlines or startup Airline become less capital intensive than cash purchase, shifts the residual value risk to the lessor, acquire tax write offs than financing and allows for flexibility.
There can be no one prescribed solution to make Airlines in Africa successful but with set objectives, goals and targets like Ethiopian Airlines started “Vision 2010” in 2005, which aimed to increase passenger traffic to 3 million, revenue to US$1 billion and employees to 6,000 by 2010. By the year 2010 Ethiopian had exceeded all goals set in “Vision 2010” and the company's net profit for the fiscal year ended 2010-6-30 was US$121.4 million.The results were attributed in part to an aggressive marketing campaign and major cost cutting measures.
In 2010 Ethiopian adopted "Vision 2025", a 15-year development strategy, under which the airline anticipates increasing its fleet to 120, the number of destinations to 90, carrying more than 18 million passengers and 720,000 tonnes (710,000 long tons; 790,000 short tons) of cargo, with 17,000 employees.″Vision 2025″ also considers a fourfold expansion of the capacity building for trainees in the airline's aviation academy.
Source Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_airlines_of_Africa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RwandAir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASKY_Airlines
http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/10-budget-airlines-africa/index.html
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2016-12-02/205903
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2359/how-do-airlines-pay-for-their-planes
http://flyasky.com/asky/
https://rwandair.com/
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