WRENELLE STANDER – NEW AASA CEO

The Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) has done a solid behind the scenes job of fighting for the promotion and rights of southern African airlines. In July 2021, long serving CEO Chris Zweigenthal retired and Wrenelle Stander has stepped into the hot seat – in this, the most difficult of times. But Wrenelle is supremely qualified, and AASA may consider itself fortunate to have acquired her talents.

WRENELLE HAS HAD a stellar career. Prior to joining AASA, Wrenelle held a range of enterprise level leadership positions within the South African civil aviation and energy industries including Chief Executive Officer - Comair Limited (owner of kulula.com and the BA franchise), Managing Director: Sasol Gas, Managing Director: Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company (ATNS) and she has been a Chairman of the AASA board. She has also served as Deputy CEO of the South African Civil Aviation Authority. Wrenelle has an MBA from Oxford Brookes University in the UK and a BA (Hons) from the University of Cape Town. Guy Leitch asks Wrenelle about her vision for AASA and its member airlines’ recovery, particularly in this most difficult of all times.

What will be your key priorities at AASA?

My immediate focus will be on the full and safe resumption of scheduled airline services as soon as possible, including the lifting of the ban on leisure travel to and from Gauteng. Over the longer term my focus for AASA will be on the following five strategic priorities:

1. Recovery of the Southern Africa airline industry

2. Being the voice of influence in the Southern African airline industry

3. Sustainability of the Southern African airline industry

4. Financial sustainability of AASA

5. Renewal of the AASA stakeholder engagement approach and channels

Up to now AASA has had a track record of ‘constructive engagement” and not confrontation with opposing forces. Will you continue that style or is more direct and forceful opposition now necessary?

AASA, together with all aviation stakeholders must work together to achieve a safe, sustainable, and competitive air transport industry in Southern Africa.

As an industry leader and catalyst, AASA’s focus is to shape Southern African aviation policy to benefit airline customers and the broader regional economy. We will continue to demonstrate our credibility as a leadership partner within the aviation industry and with policy makers.

What is your vision for the future of Southern African airlines? Increasing liberalisation? Consolidation? Mergers and acquisitions of weaker carriers?

My vision is an airline industry which connects as many customers with as many markets as possible; where publicly and privately owned airlines compete with clear rules, where regulators hold service providers accountable for safety and efficiency and where airlines, airports and air navigation providers deliver excellent and good value-for-money services for the benefit of their respective customers.

Aviation enables growth and drives socio-economic integration. To maximise these, we need to accelerate the industry’s liberalisation and open up markets to increased competitive air connectivity.

Africa is a large, diverse region, with economies all moving at different speeds. As a result, the outcomes for African carriers will be heavily dependent on economic policies.

Our industry’s recovery is likely to be protracted. IATA forecasts a return to 2019 international traffic levels in 2024 and it is unlikely that Africa’s market will recover to its pre-pandemic levels of 115 million passengers (74 million international & 41 million domestic) overnight.

Will AASA in any way address the uneven playing field created by state subsidy of their airlines?

Most analysts concur that the global industry will emerge from the crisis with smaller and fewer airlines. As the industry’s representative body, what matters most is that governments’ aviation policies promote a competitive, affordable, sustainable, and safe air transport industry.

In Africa, the drivers for air travel and air freight are more fundamental and remain undiminished by the crisis, i.e. population growth and large distances between markets, often characterised by hostile terrain, with few navigable rivers, no long-distance rapid rail network and bottlenecks at land frontiers. We want to work with governments and industry to address those needs in a way that is economically, socialy, commercially and environmentally sustainable.

Will the Covid recovery period be characterised by increased conflict between agencies such as the SACAA and ATNS seeking to restore their income and the airlines struggling to get back to health?

The pandemic and governments’ responses to it exposed the vulnerability of the entire air transport and tourism ecosystem. No single component or player has been immune. The impact has affected every facet of the industry.

The actions of all stakeholders will determine the severity and longevity of the crises, how quickly we recover, the extent of our industry’s transformation and which companies will emerge stronger than their peers. Above all, we need to recognise that recovery will be driven by customers, and we have to do everything possible to rebuild their confidence in health and safety and get them flying again.

You must be relieved to be out of the pressures of Comair. Do you see your work at AASA as being less stressful - kind of a retirement job?

I miss the wonderful people of Comair and the incredible energy of running an airline operation. Being the CEO of AASA will certainly draw on different skills and competencies, however, is unlikely to be less demanding. The future health, robustness and sustainability of AASA’s members, the industry and AASA itself, depend heavily on our success in helping to determine policy and the ground rules by which airlines can compete and help grow the economies and markets they serve.

SA FLYER / Flightcom Magazine August 2021