Friday 4 December 2015

The Yamoussoukro Indecision


Full article on economist.com

Airline passengers in the West are spoiled. For all our complaining about poor customer service and stingy legroom—grumbles that Gulliver is only too happy to partake in—we live in the golden age of affordable, accessible flying. If Ireland's Ryanair wants to launch an obscure route between Latvia and Slovenia, it is free to do so. The need to schmooze foreign officials and navigate a forest of red tape has been systematically eroded by decades of pan-European liberalisation. In this fully deregulated environment, passengers reap the spoils with cheap airfares. Not so elsewhere in the world. Especially not so in Africa...

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Metrojet disaster reverberates worldwide


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Whatever doubts remained about the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 over the Sinai Peninsula were extinguished last month, when Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting: "We can unequivocally say it was a terrorist act." A grim-faced Putin responded by pledging to "find and punish the perpetrators" of the atrocity, which killed 224 mostly Russian passengers and crew on 31 October.

Moscow had initially played down the possibility of a terrorism link, raising fears in the West that Putin might cover up the cause of the crash to deflect criticism of his military campaign in Syria. But as the body of evidence pointing to Islamic State (IS) involvement grew daily – comprising audio from the cockpit voice recorder, traces of explosives on the wreckage, intercepts of terrorist chatter, and claims of responsibility by IS – Russia shifted its narrative.

The Egyptian government now stands alone in denying evidence of an intentional act...

Interview: Edgardo Badiali, Libyan Wings CEO


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Libya witnessed a surge in commercial flights two years ago as expatriates and oil workers flocked to Tripoli, eager to contribute to – and profit from – the post-revolution recovery. With Muammar Gaddafi out of the way, hopes were high that the country would transition to a prosperous, peaceful democracy. Flag-carriers Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways picked up most of the surging traffic, competing with foreign airlines such as British Airways, Lufthansa, Alitalia, Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways.

Passenger demand was so buoyant that, in November 2013, a group of local investors unveiled Libyan Wings, a start-up airline that planned to launch domestic, regional and intercontinental flights. The company paid deposits for three widebody Airbus A350s and four smaller A320neos...

Interview: Mohamed Guled, Somali Airlines CEO


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Somali Airlines seemed poised to make a triumphant return to the skies in November 2013, when a Boeing 737-400 painted in the flag-carrier's distinctive blue livery was photographed in the Hungarian capital Budapest. Somali government officials confirmed at the time that the national carrier, which ceased operations in 1991, was about to make a comeback.

Despite the encouraging signs, however, weeks gradually turned into months and the aircraft failed to make its much-anticipated debut in Mogadishu. It was subsequently purchased by Spain's Swiftair and converted into a freighter, dashing any hopes of the flag-carrier's imminent re-birth.

While the false-start was disheartening, Somali aviation experts continue to talk of resurrecting their cherished national icon. Mohamed Mohamud Guled, the airline's longstanding President and Chief Executive, is the man overseeing these efforts...

Somalia works to reclaim control of its skies


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The collapse of Somalia's central government in 1991 left the State unable to provide even the most basic services, so it should come as no surprise that the complex task of airspace management has long been handled by outsiders.

Controlling the safe movement of aircraft into, out of and over a country's skies is not merely a domestic affair. Events such as the July 2014 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine underscore how foreigners can be gravely affected by sub-standard domestic protocols. Somalia, in particular, with its precarious security climate and long history of airborne catastrophes, is considered a high-risk country by commercial airlines.

Little wonder that since 1993 the United Nations (UN) has had overall responsibility for the country's skies...

Africa's cargo queen


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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) put a smile on the faces of airline executives around the world this summer, when it forecast a record-breaking net profit of $29.3 billion for the industry in 2015.

A combination of robust economic growth, rising business confidence, and falling fuel prices has delivered a bumper year for airlines – even with uncertainty in cargo markets dampening the mood.

Yet when IATA's profit forecast is broken down by region, the disparities are stark. The industry group estimates that African carriers will scrape by with a collective net profit of just $100 million this year. Indeed, simply staying in the black may prove to be an achievement, with four of the continent's largest carriers – Kenya Airways, South African Airways, EgyptAir and Tunisair – haemorrhaging money at an alarming rate.

All the more remarkable, then, that Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's single biggest carrier by traffic and fleet size, managed to achieve a net profit of $175 million for the 2014/15 fiscal year...

Thursday 19 November 2015

Interview: Henok Teferra, ASKY CEO


ASKY mulls Nigerian subsidiary in lieu of cabotage rights

West Africa's ASKY Airlines will consider setting up subsidiaries in large markets such as Nigeria if progress is not made in securing cabotage rights.

"The ideal is to have countries understand [the benefits of liberalisation] and create a single African market," chief executive Henok Teferra tells Flightglobal.

"But if that does not materialise, then there are other routes we would look at ... If we are not able to overcome these restrictions we have with traffic rights, we could establish for example an ASKY Nigeria so as to tap into the domestic market."

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Too far for comfort?


Full article on economist.com

WOW Air, an Icelandic low-cost carrier, will launch flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco next summer. The airline is the latest to bring the low-cost model to long-haul flying, as it tries to rekindle Reykjavik's historic role as a budget layover for flights between Europe and North America. WOW operated its first transatlantic flights this year, serving Boston and Washington Baltimore with a pair of narrow-body Airbus A321s. Having been profitable for the first nine months of 2015, Skuli Mogensen, the airline’s boss, says he has "proved the model works" and is now eager to scale up. WOW will also add two Canadian points, Toronto and Montreal, in spring 2016...

Sunday 1 November 2015

Interview: Ken Choi, Jeju Air CEO


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page 34/35 & page 36

Located on the doorstep of Asia's two largest economies – China to the west, and Japan to the east – South Korea's low-cost carriers (LCCs) are hardly short of opportunities for overseas route development.

That is just as well given their less-than-dynamic home market. Eight out of ten domestic flights in the country either depart from or land in the southern island of Jeju – the only major destination not catered for by South Korea's high-speed rail network, KTX, which is the preferred mode of transport for many.

But while the wider region is awash with attractive leisure and business destinations, capitalising on their potential is not always straightforward...

Cham Wings the last hope for Syrian expats


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Cham Wings is filling the void left by Syria's troubled flag-carrier but, as Martin Rivers reports, it could face the same obstacles to long-term viability.

Syria's Cham Wings has announced the addition of Oman and Sudan to its route network, as the Damascus-based carrier plays an increasingly prominent role in the local aviation sector amid declining fortunes at state-owned Syrian Arab Airlines.

Twice weekly flights to Muscat were launched on 3 September, and at the time of writing a once weekly service to Khartoum was scheduled to begin on 16 October...