News From Africa

Richard Maslen February 11, 2011

DJIBOUTI FLAG CARRIER SET TO FLY

The Djibouti Government has joined forces with a private United Arab Emirates investor to form a new national carrier in the African country. Djibouti Air will inaugurate flights before the end of the month, with February 22 pencilled in as the tentative launch date for its first route to Dubai. The airline is backed by real estate and construction company Lootah Group and plans to offer links to Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen before expanding into Europe and East Asia. It will initially offer six flights per week on the Djibouti -Dubai route using a leased Boeing 737-200 configured with 8 Business Class and 112 Economy seats. A second aircraft, a 145-seat 737-300 is due for delivery in March. Djibouti Air will compete directly with Flydubai and Jubba Airways on the Dubai route; its rivals offering three and two weekly flights respectively during the analysis period.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES REDUCES CAPACITY TO THE CONGO

Ethiopian Airlines is to reduce capacity on its flights linking the country’s capital Addis Ababa with Brazzaville in Congo and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The African carrier offers a daily through service that operates non-stop to Brazzaville and then on to Kinshasa before returning to Addis Ababa. This has previously been flown by a Boeing 767, but the airline has recently been using a 757 on two flights per week. From March 27, it has confirmed that it will now utilise a B737-800 on four of its flights, continuing to use widebodied equipment on just its Wednesday, Friday and Sunday rotations.

CAMEROON’S NEW FLAG CARRIER

The new national carrier of Cameroon is set to launch operations at the end of March, with two foreign nationals at the helm. The start-up, Cameroon Airways Corporation, or Camair Co, has been formed to replace former state entity Cameroon Airlines, which suspended operations in 2008. Dutchman Alex Van Elk, formerly of Arik Air, has been appointed Director General, while Austrian Gustav Baldauf has become Chief Operations Officer. The latter has previously held a similar position at Russian carrier AiRUnion. The start-up is expected to launch operations on March 27 using a mix of Boeing 737 and 767 models. Its network will comprise a mix of domestic and international services. In its home market it will offer up to 12 weekly flights between Douala and Yaounde - the country’s main internal link - five rotations per week from Douala to the North Province capital of Garoua and three to Maroua in the Far North Province. Within Africa it will provide three-times daily services to Abidjan, Bangui, Brazzaville, Cotonou, Dakar, Lagos and Libreville, although it’s most significant link will be to Paris CDG, where it will offer six flights per week from Douala, with flights operating via Yaounde in both directions. France is the largest international O&D market from Cameroon with more than 204,000 passengers travelling between the two countries in the year ending November 2010.

AIR NAMIBIA BRINGS JET SERVICE TO DOMESTIC MARKET

Air Namibia is preparing to take delivery of its first regional jet aircraft after finalising a lease deal with ECC Leasing, Embraer’s asset management and leasing subsidiary, for three ERJ 135s. The aircraft, all formerly operated by French carrier Régional, will be delivered in March and will replace Air Namibia’s Beech 1900 turboprops on domestic flights from Windhoek’s Hosea Kutako International Airport as well as the capital’s downtown Eros Airport. “We are eager to introduce our first ERJ, as we wish to bring modern, reliable aircraft to service the growing requirements of the Namibian domestic and inter-regional services,” said Ben Dahwa, general manager, technical operations, Air Namibia. “These regional jets, with an undeniably high level of comfort, will replace our oldest turboprops, improving reliability and quality of service.”

RWANDAIR TO LAUNCH BRAZZAVILLE FLIGHTS

Rwandair, the national carrier of Rwanda, will launch a three-times weekly service from Kigali to Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo from March 3. The new route is part of the carrier's programme to link Central and West African cities with East Africa and will be operated using one of its newly-acquired Bombardier CRJ200s with connections available onwards to other destinations in its network. “We are looking at growing our network to the west whilst at the same time doing it in a way that will support our existing routes,” said John Mirenge, Chief Executive Officer, RwandAir.

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