AviaDev Insight Africa – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the tenth edition of AviaDev Insight Africa’s Connectivity update, the podcast offering insight into the new route developments in Africa, hosted by Jon Howell, CEO and Founder of AviaDev Africa.

This month's guests are: 

Sean Mendis, Aviation Consultant. CONNECT WITH SEAN

Behramjee Ghadially, Aviation Consultant. CONNECT WITH BEHRAMJEE

Key topics discussed:

✈️ Qatar's 25% investment into Airlink

✈️ Uganda Airlines to launch Lusaka, Abuja and Harare and London rumours

✈️ Air Botswana's regional expansion and fleet expansion to Namibia and South Africa

✈️ Air Senegal's network reduction and management changes

✈️ Kenya Airways reporting a net profit for the first time in over 10 years. 

✈️ Ethiopian's Winter expansion and schedule changes

✈️ South African Airways increasing Mauritius to double-daily and starting Lubumbashi

✈️ TAAG increasing flights to South Africa and more managerial changes

✈️ Air France suspending Accra

✈️ Etihad re-advertising Nairobi

✈️ Air Tanzania launching Dubai-Zanzibar

✈️ FlyGabon to launch iminently

✈️ Emirates' latest update on restarting Nigeria operations

If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe to the podcast to never miss another episode and share this episode with someone in your network who would benefit from listening. 

In this episode, we focus on a carrier that has recently announced it will be launching services to mainland Africa for the first time. 

Air Asia will launch Kuala Lumpur - Nairobi on 15th November with a 4 weekly service and deploy an Airbus A330-300 comprising 12 business class and 365 economy seats. 

I am joined by Paul Carroll, the Chief Commercial Officer of the Air Asia Group and together we cover

• An introduction to the Air Asia offering and business model
• Why Nairobi was chosen as the first entry point in Continental Africa and why now?
• How strong are the commercials on the route?
• What has the reaction been in the short time since the route was announced and put up for sale?
• How important is the Chinese market in the route's success?
• How will Air Asia stimulate the market to support the growth it will need to ensure the route is viable and successful?
• Why start with 4 frequencies per week?
• Are there plans for partnerships/ interlines with African carriers?
• What is the distribution strategy in Africa?

Connect/ Follow Paul on LinkedIn here

If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe to the podcast to never miss another episode and share this episode with someone in your network who would benefit from listening. 

In this episode, I am joined by Natalia Rosa to elaborate on the partnership between AviaDev and SADC Business Council and preview the Air Route Development Masterclass which will be held during AviaDev Africa 2024.

Together, we discuss:

Natalia's background, role, and mandate

Air Access as a policy focus of SADC

Are policy-makers listening to the industry?

The format and purpose of the workshop and partnership

To find out more and register visit www.aviadev.com 

This March will see the first live, in-person aviation event in Africa for 2 years. The 67th ACI Africa Board and Committee meetings regional conference and exhibition will take place 12-18 March in the wonderful location of Mombasa, Kenya and AviaDev will be present.

ACI Africa is the Voice of African Airports, with its prime objective to represent and advance the collective interests of African airports

In this podcast, I am joined by the Secretary-General of ACI Africa, Ali Tounsi and together we preview the conference and discuss the key issues of focus for ACI as we look to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

Find out more and register for the event here: http://aci-africa.net/

In this episode, I am joined by the co-hosts of one of my favourite podcasts, Bryanair.

The podcast was a real support to me personally during the Covid lockdown. It was a weekly dose of industry news and flight deck banter, which offered an escape from the negativity around us and it has gone from strength to strength over the last 2 years. 

In the podcast, we cover:

• The Bryanair origin story
• The overall aim of the podcast and how it has developed
• The format and audience 
• The beauty of the podcast medium and its adoption in Africa
• What to expect from the podcast in the future

You can discover the show for yourself by subscribing on your platform of choice or by clicking here https://bryanair.libsyn.com/ 

You can connect with Bryan here 

You can connect with Ryan here

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone that you think would benefit from listening and don’t forget to leave us a review so we can be found by even more people.

You can also visit the AviaDev website, www.aviationdevelop.com to sign up for the AviaDev newsletter. 

2021 was yet another disastrous year for African airlines in terms of profitability and any recovery was impacted by the Omicron variant. 

The African Airlines Association or AFRAA was a member of the multi-sectoral task force that met and created a document that called for the safe reopening of borders back in February 2021 and there is now a renewed effort to implement the recommendations.

Together with Mr Berthe, we discuss

Why is now the right time for a renewed effort to harmonise travel protocols.

How AFRAA is supporting the African CDC and what AFRAA member airlines want to see in terms of progress?

Digitizing travel in 2022 and harmonizing the inter-operability of solutions

AFRAA’s aims and objectives for 2022.

You can find out more at www.afraa.org 

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone that you think would benefit from listening and don’t forget to leave us a review so we can be found by even more people.

You can also visit the AviaDev website to find out more and sign up for AviaDev Africa taking place on the treasure island of Madagascar this June.

The Covid crisis has had a profound impact on the aviation sector in Africa and these shifting sands have demanded resilience and have inspired new innovative approaches to ensure survival.

One airline famed for its innovation is South Africa's FlySafair and they have announced that they will launch their first service outside of South Africa’s borders on March 8 2022 with a two weekly service to the beautiful island of Mauritius.

Kirby Gordon joins me for this podcast and is full of optimism for the immediate future. 

Together, we discuss:

• Why now is the right time to launch the Mauritius route and what is the passenger profile expected on the route
• FlySafair's regional expansion plans. What does the airline look for from a potential airport/ destination partner?
• FlySafair's approach to partnerships
• Further innovations to add to the product mix. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone that you think would benefit from listening and don’t forget to leave us a review so we can be found by even more people.

You can also visit the AviaDev website to find out more and sign up for AviaDev Africa taking place on the treasure island of Madagascar this June.

In this episode, we meet Simon Newton-Smith, who joined SAA in August 2021 as Interim CCO. He has a deep and varied background including having previously worked with SAA some 20 years ago. 

SAA emerged from business rescue in April 2021 and the airline has entered a turbulent market. 

In the podcast, we cover:

• How Simon would sum up the progress made since exiting business rescue
• Where the bright spots are and how the route network has been developed
• What SAA are looking for from potential airports/ destinations that want to attract the airline
• Clarification around the KQ/SAA strategic partnership
• SAA's fleet plans. 
• His thoughts on the recovery of business travel
• Immediate strategic objectives for 2022

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone that you think would benefit from listening and don’t forget to leave us a review so we can be found by even more people.

Find out more about AviaDev at www.aviationdevelop.com/africa 

This is the first podcast of 2022 and as such I am delighted that we are discussing a positive and uplifting pan- African project that aims to spotlight opportunities for intra-africa trade and tourism development across the value chain.

The event is the Walk for Love and in this episode, I discuss the concept of the project, why it’s needed and how you can get involved with event organiser, Toni Ukachukwu, plus include a snippet of a new song that will be released alongside the walk. 

EMAIL: walkforloveafrica@gmail.com

INSTAGRAM @walkforloveafrica

TWITTER @wfl_africa

FACEBOOK @walkforloveafrica

Song of love by Vicky Sampson out 12th Feb.

For this episode, I am joined by Derek Nseko, Publisher of Airspace-Africa and together we meet Jenifer Bamuturaki, CEO of Uganda Airlines. 

Uganda Airlines was recently crowned the world's youngest fleet by ch-aviation and operates a fleet of CRJ-900s and A330s. 

In this wide-ranging conversation, we discover the following:

• Jenifer's background and passions
• The priorities of Uganda Airlines in 2022 and beyond
• How Uganda Airlines views partnerships and collaboration
• Network and fleet development plans

Find out more about Uganda Airlines here

Connect with Derek here and visit airspace-africa