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 Hot
News and Flight News from East
Africa
by Prof. Wolfgang Thome of
Kampala
There is so much happening in
East Africa in the last few
years, we have given it a
separate section on this
website.
AIR
TANZANIA FLEET NEWS:
Tanzania's
national airline has now all but
confirmed that they will get
their first Airbus A320 before
the end of the year, at which
time their planned fleet renewal
will begin in earnest. The first
Q300 is also due to join the
fleet around the same time, if
not before, while delivery of
their ordered Q400's is due by
end of 2008 and early 2009. It
was also learned that the
operating losses caused by the
previous management of about 1
million US Dollars a month have
been very substantially reduced
already, which allowed the
Tanzania government to phase out
the monthly subsidy for ATCL. The
airline is understood to be
partnering with a major Chinese
carrier, which is intent to
commence flights to East Africa
and use Air Tanzania to feed and
defeed traffic into the region
and across the continent. It was
also learned that a buyer is in
the frame to acquire one of the
ATCL B737 aircraft with the
intent of the operating it in the
region, which would be good news
for Air Tanzania's cash flow of
course. Watch this space for
emerging aviation news from the
East African region.
KENYA
AIRWAYS SUSPENDS KISUMU FLIGHTS,
AGAIN:
Following
major maintenance for their Saab
340 aircraft, KQ has suspended
their Kisumu flights once again.
The airline has refused to deploy
their new Embraer 170 aircraft on
the route citing the state of the
runway as a major obstacle. An
airline official confirmed that
small stones and loose gravel
found on the runway may be sucked
into the engines causing damages
to the aircraft and requested the
Kenya Airport Authority to carry
out more repairs to the runway
ahead of the planned major
expansion and resurfacing of the
single runway the airport has.
Kenya Airways has also suspended
flights to Bamako in West Africa
due to safety concerns over the
state of the runway at Senou
International Airport. Visit the
airline website for updated
information on their schedules
www.kenya-airways.com
The
World's Major
Airlines
Review
by Jerry W. Bird, Editor. With
our biggest aviation edition in
ten years well underway,
serendipity played its familiar
role in my life when I received
THE WORLD'S MAJOR AIRLINES by
David Wragg. It arrived by mail
last week courtesy of the MBI
Publishing, St. Paul, MN and was
presented by John Wurm, Publicist
for Military and Aviation. I plan
to write this book review in
installments, since my first
reading was to get an overall
position on how valuable this
timely and well researched book
will be in my evaluation of
Africa's airlines and others
serving the continent. Here are
some comments from MBI that help
set the stage. "Today there are
so many airlines operating
throughout the world that even
the most knowledgeable enthusiast
can soon become confused about
which airline flies from where to
where. This new, fully
illustrated edition has been
revised and updated to include
the major advances in the
aviation industry since 1998."
More->
BRUSSELS
AIRLINES
NEWS:
In time for the forthcoming
Christmas high season the airline
will add a long awaited 4th
weekly flight every Sunday from
Brussels to Entebbe, as
incidentally already reported in
this column several months ago,
when the news of the plans could
be confirmed from airline sources
in Brussels. The acquisition of
an additional A330-200 aircraft
allows the capacity increase on
the route but also across the
airline's Africa network, one of
the best from any European
capital city.
The
airline is also establishing a
crew base for the Great Lakes
region in Uganda, cognizant of
the fact that they now serve
Kigali, Bujumbura, Entebbe and
Nairobi. The crew hotel selected
is the Speke Hotel and Conference
Centre / Commonwealth Resort in
Munyonyo, which will next weekend
also host the retreat of the
Commonwealth Heads of Government.
With all necessary accommodation
and recreation facilities in
place this choice will allow the
crews to enjoy their stay on the
shores of Lake Victoria before
their deployment on long haul
routes back to Europe.
Some
of this information was provided
by the airline's Senior Vice
President Sales &endash; Long
Haul and African Projects Mr.
Etienne De Nil, who visited
Uganda during the
week.
News
are also awaited on Brussels
Airlines' bid for Rwandair, where
they are the leading contender in
the privatization exercise
presently in its final stages. In
addition, Brussels Airlines is
now also partnering with Congo
based Hewa Bora Airlines, the
only Congolese carrier licensed
by the EU to fly to Europe. They
are reportedly also actively
seeking similar partnerships in
other West African countries.
This constellation, if the
Rwandair bid is successful, will
likely establish a feasible air
bridge between West and East
Africa under Brussels Airlines
auspices and make the crew base
in Entebbe even more important in
years to come. This in fact may
become more significant if plans
do materialize to commence
flights to Tanzania. The airline
is understandably hush hush about
their intent but the growing
business and tourist traffic to
Tanzania can simply no longer be
ignored by Brussels Airlines,
which already is the leading
European airline to the Great
Lakes region and would do well to
further cement their market share
and destination spread across
Eastern Africa.
Meridiana
Africa
Airlines
(U) Limited, aka Air Uganda, has
now started placing teaser ads in
the local media, which by
conventional wisdom indicates
that they may in fact now start
operations after all within the
next one or two weeks. It is
however understood that they
continue to face problems with
traffic right issues between
Kenya and Uganda. Usually well
informed sources were coy over
the reasons for this situation
and, while not going on record,
indicated a lack of understanding
by airline management of the
complexities of the rights
issues.
EVER
HEARD OF 'GROUP
CELESTAIR':
Air Uganda, aka Meridiana Africa
Airlines (U) Limited, has
apparently now taken to the
skies, using first generation DC
9's for their operation. Industry
experts have already raised
questions on their likely
operating cost in view of record
fuel prices at the moment, as the
aircraft is known to be a fuel
guzzler of the highest order,
more so as the fares advertised
under asterix (see final
paragraph) are lower than what
has since been charged. If this
signals a price war with Kenya
Airways remains to be seen but in
view of past experiences no
airline in the region has yet
managed to break KQ's standing in
the region through lower fares
and aggressive
attitudes.
Incidentally,
no answers could be received on
the actual age of the aircrafts,
which were obviously given a new
coat of paint before their
deployment to Uganda. The
aircraft were introduced to the
Ugandan public last week, when a
series of 'test flights' were
conducted, something which could
not be ignored by onlookers as
the noisy aircraft screamed down
the runway and into the sky with
exhaust fumes clearly visible as
from a different aviation age.
The
new Uganda Civil Aviation Air
Service Regulations require
supervised non-commercial test
flights from new operators
applying for an AOC under the
Uganda regulatory regime to
ensure the new airlines actually
have minimum levels of
competence. As to the obscure
'Group Celestair' painted on the
side of the aircraft, readers may
wish to seek out the web and try
establish what comprises this
'group'.
Meanwhile
a clear trend is visible to use
organization friendly news media
to head bash Kenya Airways over
their pricing, occasional
operational problems or even
highlight KQ's drop of profits
over the past year, with the
apparent aim to soften up the
public and turn their sentiment
against East Africa's leading
airline. No word of compliment on
KQ's use of environmentally much
more friendly aircraft though,
which is in stark contrast with
the fleet employed by the
upstart, nor about the
contributions the airline made
over the past 15 years to help
develop traffic into Uganda. It
is therefore suggested that what
such reporting is really aiming
for is to help create traffic
share on the Entebbe &endash;
Nairobi route for a sister
company and this should be openly
said.
And
all this incidentally on the same
day when the European Commission
exposed as 'misleading' some 200
airline websites in Europe for
not being in compliance with
consumer protection guidelines,
such as showing taxes and other
fees included in the advertised
fares and instead referring to
unspecified 'terms and conditions
apply', well well well
…
.FLY
540 PLANS FOR REGIONAL
FLIGHTS
Lonrho
Africa has confirmed plans for
further investments in their
aviation offspring Fly540, in
which they hold a 49 percent
share. They are said to eye in
particular the Angolan market for
which they appear to have
selected a partner already.
Information received some months
ago already shows that the
private Kenyan airline is looking
at Juba / Southern Sudan but may
also be preparing to spread their
wings to Kilimanjaro, Dar es
Salaam, Zanzibar and Entebbe.
This would give them a full
regional network and allow long
haul carriers landing in Nairobi
use these flights to feed and
defeed. More aircraft are on
order by Fly 540 and once
delivery takes place the airline
will offer more choices to
travellers.
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