Flight News On Johannesburg International Airport & Africa Being Land Of Golden Opportunity In Air Transport In the October air news there reports that Johannesburg could become "centre of the world" if its airspace was liberated, according to Fathi Atti, Etihad Airways' Head of Government Affairs and below find more news. Opening the Aviation Outlook Africa 2010 conference in Cape Town recently ,he made a "no brainer" business case for the long-delayed full liberalization of African airspace by drawing on Abu Dhabi, Dubai,Dohar,and Singapore as examples. "In the past, European hubs such as Franfurt, Paris and London were seen as the centre of the aviation world. With global liberalization, this focus shifted to Singapore and then to the Middle East. New technology means aircraft can now fly longer distances non-stop, meaning any city can be a world aviation hub. There is no reason why it can't be Johannesburg!"he said. He added that the Arab Liberalization Agreement led to increased traffic and tourism between Arb states. It brought more competitive fares and better products and services; more routes and a more diversified visitor base; increased traffic and a resulting boom to the tourism industry; job growth in aviation and an indirect job growth in the wider economy. In Abu Dhabi it helped Etihad become the fastest growing commercial airline in the world. To achieve success as in the Middle East, Atti suggested Africa needed airlines that were managed by business experts and not governments and civil servants; needed to lift border restrictions such as visas; needed to integrate its regions; must embrace new aircraft and new technologies; and must liberalize its domestic and external markets so everyone could fly. Increase Focus On Africa In a similar vein, Koustav Dhar, CEO of Jagson Airlines, an Indian regional airline, stressed that Africa was the new land of golden opportunity for airlines. With an average 12% annual growth in air transport Africa was one of the highest growth regions worldwide. Domestic passenger numbers in Africa grew from 28,5-million in 2003 to 82,87-million in 2009, he pointed out. Domestic aircraft numbers increased from 158 in 2003 to 445 in 2009. Weekly international departures from Africa increased from 5108 in 2003 to 12543 in 2009. Following the introduction of a low-cost carrier and several start-ups, consolidation was now happening in Africa because of fierce competition, price wars, infrastructure constraints, pilot shortages, megers and acquisitions, Dhar said. He predicted this could lead to big airlines using narrow-bodied aircraft competing for the same passengers in the same markets; and big players and several others competing for specific markets on regional routes resulting in higher frequencies. He said there was a real need for a strong regional airline supporting domestic African operations and connecting most African nations with multiple frequencies.
He suggested Egypt or Morocco should be promoted as the natural African hub for the Middle East to Africa, Asia to Africa and Africa to Europe flights. Addis Ababa and Abuja were natural hub choices for Africa to US and Africa to Asia connections. Dhar suggested a higher concentration of services was needed or regional routes and more 70-to 100-seat category aircraft were needed for quick turnarounds. He said Open skies policies must include Central African nations, which needed better connections to Europe, Asia and Middle East. West Africa needed better connections to South America, the route having the best growth potential. He believed the Indian Ocean Islands, Central- and Western Africa needed to be better marketed in Europe ,the US and Asia. He urged that Namibia, Algeria, Sudan, the Comoros and Madagascar be promoted to attract more airlines and encourage entrepreneurs to start medium and regional airlines. Regional Liberalization East African Community (EAC) deputy secretary general, Alloys Mutabingwa, called on African states to speed up the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) - in terms of which African states agreed to open skies within Africa for African carriers-through their regional economic communities, such as the ECA and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He said they particularly should work on eliminating restrictions on capacity and frequencies between city pairs. This would ease travel within Africa, where regional connections were still often unavailable. "We also must put in place the necessary regulations, institutions and monitoring mechanism to ensure fair play in a liberalized environment," he said. Fear of competition has been on of the main contributing factors why YD has remained largely unimplemented in many parts of Africa. However, SAA,Egypt Air, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines are enjoying simplified bilateral air service agreements due to the inclusion of some elements of YD." Mutabingwa said EAC partner states were in an advanced stage of implementing YD. They had also established a regional organization to coordinate efforts in addressing safety and security oversight in the region. SACAA Supports Comair's Plans For Old Durban Airport The SA Civil Aviation Authority supports Comair's call to keep the old Durban International Airport operative ,says Commissioner for Civil Aviation ,Colin Jordaan. Speaking at the recent Aviation Africa Outlook Conference in Cape Town, he said the SACAA had made representations to the Standing Portfolio committee on Transport in this regard. Consequently, a new working group was constituted, which would decide the fate of the airport in the next few months. The Government last year turned down a proposal from Comair to buy the old airport with a view of
using it as an alternative for kulula.com, similar to its operations at Lanseria.Comairs plans are based on the model of overseas low-cost carriers, such as Easy Jet and Ryan Air, using secondary, cheaper airports to keep down costs. In a later development, the SA Minister of Transport, Sibusiso Ndebele, has announced that the department is going to open bids for Durban International Airport to all interested parties. End In Sight For African LCCs Comair, the company which pioneered low-fare flying in South Africa with kulula.com,says the traditional low-cost carrier (LCC) model does not work in Africa and no-frills carrier fares are likely to equal those of full service airlines in future. Comair's joint Chief Executive, Erik Venter, says the reason is there is little difference in the operating costs of a low-cost and a full-service airline in this market. "The traditional low cost carrier model does not work here," he told the conference." Unlike their overseas counterparts, local LCCs are subject to the same taxes and fees as full-service airlines because they have no cheaper, alternative airports to which to fly." He said the only real difference between the two airline business models was the low fare, but this depended on high volumes, which were difficult to achieve in Africa. Pressure to offer lower fares meant LCCs had to use increasingly larger aircraft to achieve higher volumes. Comair has acquired two Boeing 737-800NGs for kulula.com and is also in discussions to finance the acquisition of up to eight B737-800s for delivery between 2012 and 2015. Venter predicted a recovering world stock market, a climbing oil price, plus a shortfall of pilots would severely impact on LCCs in future. "We're sitting at a plateau of LCC growth in South Africa .The past growth is hardly going to be maintained and LCC tickets will go up to be not far off from full service airline tickets in future. And if we can't keep prices low, we won't get the volumes and then we can't maintain the LCC model". Venter said a hybrid airline business model was already emerging with traditional airlines toning down their services and LCCs moving closer to being full-service airlines.