News From Africa

Richard Maslen April 14, 2011

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES TO LAUNCH CHENNAI SERVICE

Ethiopian Airlines is to begin serving Chennai, its third destination in India. The African national carrier will extend its existing Addis Ababa – Mumbai flight to serve the northern city, located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, on a daily basis from May 1. Ethiopian also flies to New Delhi, a service that up until May 1 continued on to Beijing. From that date the airline will be offering a direct link to Beijing using its new Boeing 777-200LR and the Addis Ababa – New Delhi flight will instead continue to Hangzhou, another brand new destination for the carrier. Approximately 28,000 O&D passengers travelled between Ethiopia and India in the past year, the majority flying with Ethiopian Airlines, although a notable number also flew with Emirates Airline via Dubai.

OMAN AIR TO RESUME FLIGHTS TO ZANZIBAR

Middle Eastern carrier Oman Air is to once again serve Zanzibar, the Indian Ocean archipelago of islands off the coast of Tanzania. The carrier will offer a three times weekly service from its Muscat base in conjunction with its existing daily link to Dar es Salaam. The changes will take effect from May 16 when on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays, the Boeing 737-800 flying the route will operate via the islands. With no direct links between the two destinations only 3,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, the majority flying with Kenya Airways via Nairobi.

AIR SEYCHELLES GOES DIRECT TO SINGAPORE

Air Seychelles is to resume weekly non-stop flights from Mahe to Singapore, dropping the existing stopover in the Indian city of Chennai. The carrier had previously served the route directly in the past but in November 2010 it introduced the supplementary stop in Chennai. In the past year it carried less than 1,000 O&D passengers between the Indian Ocean archipelago and the Indian city, with approximately four times as many flying to or from Singapore. The airline says it planned to establish Chennai as the “hub of its operations in Asia” and to also expand further into India and other Asian destinations as its direct flight to Singapore was not making a profit. However, the airline notes that the stop lengthened the flight time by two hours and additional costs incurred on the ground in Chennai has increased the loss. This has resulted in it posting a loss of 16.5 million during the past three and a half months which is equal to the loss of a full year of operations to Singapore. “Our decision to suspend these flights has not been taken lightly as we had invested money and time to make this route profitable. Unfortunately this is not case and in the absence of 5th Freedom Traffic Rights to uplift passengers between Chennai and Singapore, we have no other option but to suspend our weekly Chennai operations,” said Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Executive Chairman, Air Seychelles. The last flight to Chennai will operate on May 23, returning on May 25 and from June 1 the Mahe – Singapore link will again be served non-stop once every week. This is the second time Air Seychelles has suspended a route to India; it previously served Mumbai from 2001 to 2005 but suspended flights to due to fierce competition. However, Maurice Loustau-Lalanne has not ruled out future expansion into the country, a market he describes as “important” for the carrier. “A dedicated flight to India and back to Mahe is not ruled out,” he said but this will be reliant upon an on-going review of its operations and the development of a revised business strategy.

ZAMBEZI AIRLINES TO SERVE CAPE TOWN

Privately-owned Zambian carrier Zambezi Airlines is to inaugurate flights between Lusaka and Cape Town from June 30. The three times weekly link will be operated with a Boeing 737-500 via the border town of Livingstone, a gateway to the famous Victoria Falls. The small carrier launched services in July 2008 initially offering links from Lusaka to the Copperbelt cities of Ndola and Kitwe with an Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante. Flights were subsequently added to Chipata, Livingstone and Solwezi and the arrival of two 737-500s enabled services to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Harare, Zimbabwe; Johannesburg, South Africa; Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nairobi, Kenya to be added, as well as a domestic link to Ndola. There are currently more than 70 flights per week between Zambia and South Africa offering almost 8,000 seats in each direction. The main links are from Livingstone and Lusaka to Johannesburg, although Livingstone is also linked to Nelspruit and Ndola to Johannesburg. Zambezi Airlines offers a daily link to Johannesburg from Lusaka and Ndola and accounts for around 24.4 per cent of the 220,000 O&D passengers that flew between the two countries in the past year, a figure that fell around 8.1 per cent in the past 12 months.

KENYA AIRWAYS TO USE 737 ON ROME CONNECTION

Kenya Airways has introduced the Boeing 737-700 on its flights between Nairobi and Rome, the first time it has regularly used the narrowbodied airliner on its services to Europe. The flight was previously operated by a mix of 767 and 777 aircraft and represents a significant reduction in capacity. The route is served three times every week. Kenya Airways is the only airline offering direct flights on the route, a market of around 9,000 O&D passengers in the past year. It resumed the service in December last year but there were suggestions that demand may not have been as strong as forecasted when it was suggested earlier this year that it could drop to just a single weekly rotation using a 777. It is now at least maintaining frequency on the route, although passengers will face a 7 hour 35 minute flight to Europe and a 7 hour sector to Africa on a single-aisle aircraft. Kenya Airways notes, however, that the 737-700 will be replaced by a 767-300ER between June 12 and August 28 to cover the peak holiday period.

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