Yesterday’s first day of the Routes Africa Strategy Forum attempted to highlight some of the key issues that are impacting the commercial aviation business across the entire African region. With a high profile list of speakers the content was specially developed to provide a unique insight into the business with informed moderators ensuring the key issues were not glossed over.
The HUB highlights the key quotes from yesterday's discussions:
“Our national carrier Air Seychelles was like many carriers hit by the emerging challenges such as the price of fuel and the Eurozone crisis it is these challenges that still persist today.”
Joel Morgan, Minister of Home Affairs and Transport, Seychelles.
“The solution came from forming a strategic partnership with Etihad Airways, a global leader which acquired a 40% stake in Air Seychelles in February this year. This radical transformation has catapulted Air Seychelles sudden position of prominence made Air Seychelles the a topic of discuss by African aviation experts and, possibly, a future case study of the survival of one of the world’s smallest carriers having been found worthy to be Etihad’s strategic partner in this part of the world.”
Joel Morgan, Minister of Home Affairs and Transport, Seychelles.
"Whilst exploring new avenues such as Abu Dhabi launched in March and Beijing planned in January 2013, through this partnership Etihad and Air Seychelles are working closely to further boost air services by opening up Seychelles Tourism Authority to over 19 codeshare destinations through the Abu Dhabi hub.”
Joel Morgan, Minister of Home Affairs and Transport, Seychelles.
"We did not need the expense of PR agencies in all the markets we serve, general procurement, we were paying three times as much for printer ink cartridges that’s all significant.”
Cramer Ball, CEO, Air Seychelles.
“Passengers numbers in Africa are expected to increase from 68 million in 2010 to 150 million in 2030. This would translate into a five percent per year growth rate for aviation’s direct contribution to gross domestic product on the continent.”
Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism Republic of South Africa.
“By introducing e-visas, we will not only grow tourism volumes, but we will also create many new job opportunities to accelerate the creation of regional visa schemes. This would allow our international visitors and intra-African travellers to move more freely and efficiently, to the benefit of our continent.”
Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism Republic of South Africa.
“Continental Tourism plays a crucial role in times of recession, the dominance of regional tourism in Africa shielded our continent during the worst impact of the 2008/2009 global economic recession.”
Martinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister for Tourism of the Republic of South Africa.
“We need real drive behind the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision. By gradually opening our skies to more competition, we will be able to offer our passengers more competitive fares, expand direct air service and, generally, greater convenience.”
Martinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister for Tourism of the Republic of South Africa.
“We need hub-and-spoke airlift configurations that connect peripheral areas to the mainstream air routes as well as to a South-South corridor.”
Martinus Van Schalkwyk Minister for Tourism of the Republic of South Africa.
“The top feeder markets are still UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, but we see good strong growth from non-traditional markets such as Russia, up 70%, Germany, 20%, the UAE up 30%, markets we should take advantage of.”
Cramer Ball, CEO, Air Seychelles.
“We were too big, we had to right size the business, we had a company forum on 26th March, by 31 May we had finalised right sizing the business.”
Cramer Ball, CEO, Air Seychelles.
“We had to introduce development and training opportunities so our staff could grow, our staff knew they had a future, we introduced and have delivered, graduate management programmes, cadet programmes, staff cabin crew development, engineering training programmes, cabin crew development, for our people was we needed to move quickly.”
Cramer Ball, CEO, Air Seychelles.
“What’s key is to drive revenue, link in to the Etihad distribution network, link into the Etihad sales staff and sales team grow distribution, focus on key segmentation from other markets, whether its adventure tourism, weddings, fishing, whatever it maybe.”
Cramer Ball, CEO, Air Seychelles
“We can’t act as an island, we need partners.”
Cramer Ball, CEO, Air Seychelles.
“We have to simplify the aviation business, less bureaucracy, less taxes, less government interference and absolutely, totally no corruption.”
David Savy, Chairman of the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority.
“If you look at a number of African countries, those with the highest economic indices are those that still have their national airlines so that is important.”
David Savy, Chairman of the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority.
“Your airline has to be in a very strong financial position before you liberalise the aviation market.”
Jean-Marc Grazzini, EVP for Business Development, Air Austral.
“What I say to big carriers is do not come in and kick us out of the business, that’s when we start resisting, most African airlines already have a foot in the grave, only four or five are doing business up there. I may want to fly regionally and that means going small.”
Dr Douglas Runyowa, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
“The aviation industry is the oxygen that breathes air into the tourism industry.”
Kingsley Makhubela, Director General of the Department of Tourism, South Africa.
“The question is what are the numbers we want to have, if you want them there are certain structural adjustments we need to deal with in our domestic market.”
Kingsley Makhubela, Director General of the Department of Tourism, South Africa.
“The biggest concern is to allow better pricing structure, this will allow for better movement of people around the country.”
Kingsley Makhubela, Director General of the Department of Tourism, South Africa.
“If there is demand and as we receive our B787 Dreamliners there is a strong potential for growth.”
John Twiss, Network Planning Manager, Africa, India & Middle East, United.
“It’s a Catch 22 in Africa, there is a shortage of funds so how much do you spend before you get a return? We need to work together as move to develop new destinations, if we moved as a group then maybe it would be faster.”
Alain St Ange, Seychelles' Minister for Tourism.
(With thanks to Oliver Clark, Editor, Routes News.)
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