The African aviation industry is an interesting one on so many levels. On one end of the spectrum you have Ethiopian Airlines, which has scaled their route network in a way that no other airline on the continent has. They're even investing in some other airlines, and they're actually making money flying.
Continue reading: Four African Airlines Are Thinking Of Forming An Alliance
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
CZ can join them as CAN has a huge demand in flying to/from Africa. Forget about OW lol
As mentioned, KLM has a 7.8% share in Kenya Airways and a very close relationship. Air Mauritius has a long-standing relationship with Air France and recently began cooperating with klm from Amsterdam. So it makes no sense for these airlines to form a separate alliance running alongside their existing members
It would be like Cathay Pacific being a member of Oneworld and skyteam
I was quite surprised to read that these discussions have been going on for about 15months and they are now in the final stages of forming the alliance.
I fail to see how they can work together. Kenya Airways, Air Mauritius & Rwandair.....i could somehow see them working together. Now SAA. That's a whole different pot of soup there.
@eggeggice totally agree. The mere 2 (or 3) weeklies to NBO is like nothing and isn’t flattering QR as well. The best idea is to expand ITSELF.
Geography is a problem for South African Airways. The only plausible market they might serve is South America to India.
Maybe JetBlue or Druk Air might want to join that alliance.
Depends on what these airlines will cooperate on and to what extent and the willingness for each partner to help each other out. Because protectionism and not swallowing one's pride will doom this. And what would they focus on? Intra-partnership traffic within these countries? Pan-Africa? Long-haul to other continents? Connecting traffic will need to play a big role here... Or will they just focus on things like maintenance/training and leasing out equipment/crews? Putting several small/midsize players together with just a few longhaul routes would only have moderate impact IMO, unless they can expand.
"It sure seems to me like many of these airlines would be best off focusing on short-haul flying, and then maybe partnering with an airline like Emirates to provide global connectivity."
I agree. Start small, then grow from there.
Good comment @Debit .
I was raised in Africa and worked in Kenya , Uganda and Ghana for 11 years ,then I also worked for a South African company branch in Asia .
Some African countries are more efficient than others , in some it is all about poor management , in some all about corruption, in some tribalism, in some unwillingness to hire professionals from overseas (maybe too expensive or racially motivated, i.e. anti white ) .
These issues are the main reasons for some African airlines not being efficient and profitable. I cannot see an alliance between the 4 mentioned airlines being efficient .
Great idea. That way they can all use the same bankruptcy lawyers when the inevitable collapse and failure of this fools journey occurs.
“Then you have airlines like South African Airways, Kenya Airways, etc,. which are perpetually on the brink of collapse.”. and perpetually on the government teet.
Worth noting that Air Mauritius is already in the Vanilla Alliance, which is fairly new.
Sounds like an attempt to reduce competition and raise intra-African airfares more than anything else.