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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0163.PDF
Airlines neighbouring states and the Middle East, we will fly to the UK, probably by mid- 2003," he adds. Its five-year plan calls for Africa One- branded companies to be operating in east ern, western and southern Africa. The East African operation comprises Tanzania and Uganda, while the signing of a new bilat eral between Uganda and Nigeria last October has cleared the way for Africa One Nigeria to launch services from a hub in Lagos, and will enable the airline to begin Entebbe-Lagos services. The launch of the Nigerian division has been put on hold until studies are completed on how it will fit into its current structure. Africa One plans Negotiations are under way to launch Africa One Sierra Leone with two DC-9s, while the setting up of Africa One Zambia for operations into southern Africa is also in the planning stage. "We are creating Africa One-branded companies in all those areas we think simi lar niche opportunities exist such as in Uganda and Nigeria, where we have domi nant carrier situations almost leading to abuse of the oligopoly," says Obbo. He adds that the pan-African hub structure will provide the springboard for a move into the long-haul business. The airline plans to renew its fleet within two to three years, with the Boeing MD-82/83 due to replace the DC-9s on short-haul services and the Airbus A310/A330 and 767-300ER being evalu ated for its long-haul operations. EAA is focused on regional operations with the intention of feeding the major airlines flying into the region. The airline's chief executive Benedict Mutyaba says the absence of a flag carrier was a good enough reason to launch a new Ugandan airline, as national carriers tend to be more commit ted to local markets than foreign operators. On services from Entebbe, EAA has a co operative agreement with Africa One, while a codeshare agreement with Air Zimbabwe allows EAA to carry passengers between Lusaka, Zambia; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Johannesburg. It is also negotiating inter line agreements with BA, Kenya Airways and SAA to tap into their global networks. With overcapacity eating into yields on its Entebbe-Nairobi services, EAA sees a niche in focusing on underserved routes to southern African destinations. The carrier is the only operator flying directly from Entebbe to Bujumbura, Burundi; Harare and Lusaka. "While we have many airlines operating here, few of them offer regional point-to-point services and we think there is room for us there," says Mutyaba. He also hopes that the major airlines will find it more cost-effective to wait for OPEN SKIES Liberalisation moves slowly African free trade body, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), is trying to drive the conti nent towards a fully deregulated operating environment. Dubbed the Yamoussoukro treaty, this open skies agreement was implemented in 1999, but progress has been slow and patchy. Some efforts have come to fruition with the removal of capacity restrictions on routes between city pairs but, according to Kenya Airways, many African governments are yet to adhere to the treaty and remain overly protective of their markets. Kenya Airways chairman Isaac Omolo Okero says that although COMESA member states have embraced the provisions of the open- skies treaty, the majority still deny unlimited access. Egypt has allowed Kenya Airways an additional seven flights a week, Rwanda has permitted an equal number and the Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to five, while Ghana has granted an additional four frequencies into Accra. Capacity limitations between Kenya and the UK, as well as to Belgium, have been lifted, while Denmark, Norway and Sweden have allowed Kenya Airways-KLM codeshare flights. Kenya Airways complains that the pace of liberalisation is not fast enough. The airline's director of cor porate strategy Dr Jason Kap-kirwork says: "Most governments haven't signed the open skies agreement among themselves owing to political differences or security issues. However, progress has been made in terms of ownership and control issues. Many governments are now willing to privatise their airlines." There is a risk that the longer the governments take to open up skies among themselves, the greater the chances that Western nations will sign bilaerals with individual African gov ernments, increasing competition at a time when most African airlines can not compete effectively. EAA to feed them from Entebbe rather than compete with it on regional routes. Nearly 80% of traffic originating from Entebbe is interlining, making north bound frequencies critical. Entebbe hopes Availability of these services at Nairobi has turned it into the region's primary hub, but Mutyaba thinks this can change if regional operators can raise Entebbe's traffic enough Air Tanzania to justify additional long-haul frequencies will expand by the major airlines. In the medium term, and update EAA is looking at launching services to the its fleet Indian subcontinent with flights to following Mumbai, India, or Karachi, Pakistan. SAA's Both start-ups warn, however, that the investment embryonic airline market in Uganda could be hurt by a knock-on effect from the Mombasa attacks as there could be a 10% fall in traffic. Obbo says interline traffic accounts for only 9-10% of Africa One's passenger volume, but this could still be critical. He says the absence of cancella tions so far could be due to a delayed reac tion by those who had already booked finding it difficult to make last-minute changes. "The impact is going to be regional and some sectors of the East African travel market could lose up to 75% business in 2003," he says. EAA's Mutyaba warns that up to 30% of traffic could be lost if business travellers from Europe cancel. "Traffic from abroad is important to us because intra-African routes are very thin," he says. • www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 28 JANUARY - 3 FEBRUARY 2003 33
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