Spotlight On Africa – Africa Remains A Market Of Huge Potential But Even Larger Challenges
Africa remains a market of huge potential but even larger challenges. The outlook for 2019 is mostly more of the same, but with some glimmers of hope.
New start-ups and most existing airlines will struggle to overcome the obstacles that have repeatedly prevented most African airlines from succeeding. Foreign airlines dominate the African market and have a huge competitive advantage. Africa is an extremely challenging market for any LCC or new start-up. However, a long list of airline failures has not dissuaded more start-ups from entering the market. Nigeria’s Green Africa Airways is the latest to seek to break the logjam, well funded and with strong credentials.
Africa’s current commercial aircraft fleet consists of 1,700 aircraft, according to CAPA Fleet Database, and there are only 257 aircraft on order from African airlines.
The African airline sector continues to struggle, with most airlines in the red
- Ethiopian Airlines has emerged as the clear market leader and is pursuing rapid growth, partially through new cross-border JVs
- Royal Air Maroc has also emerged as a standout in a challenging market and is now preparing to join oneworld
- Green Africa Airways is the latest high profile start-up, in Nigeria
Moderator: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Content Editor, Blue Swan Daily, Rich Maslen
Panel:
- Astral Aviation, CEO, Sanjeev Gadhia
- Embraer, General Manager - Special Projects AME, Hussein Dabbas
- fastJet, Group CEO, Nico Bezuidenhout
- IATA, Regional Director, Account Management, AME