It is undeniable that Africa’s air travel industry is a fairly small player compared to global industries however; research undertaken by Boeing asserted that the African air traffic is predicted to grow at 5.7% per year, which is significantly faster than the world average of 4.9%. Likewise, as a result of economic growth which led to an upsurge in wealth of African citizens, it could be hypothesised that more people will have the ability to benefit from aviation as, there are approximately 68 million people journeying by air within the continent and Airbus predicted that by 2030, it will rise to 130 million. Additionally, due to occurring improvements in Africa such as political stability and flowing investments in some countries, it could be asserted that Africa is ready... to a certain extent for this kind of innovation.
I'd like to place a special emphasis on East Africa wherein, air transport within that part of the continent has been subjected to remarkable growth both in regards to the number of carriers and markets. Nevertheless, it is essential to note that, when it comes to aviation in Africa, conditions are different across cities wherein, in North Africa for example, there are already well-established airlines such as Tunisair or Royal Air Maroc, whereas, other parts of Africa still cause significant challenges which are not only at a political level.
Establishing a Pan-African network within the continent could create a new outlook of Africa. Therefore, I personally think that Africa could be ready for the establishment of a LCC however, in order to be successful, the LCC will need to develop strategies that will counter continuing pressure on yields such as pricing service to cover costs, carefully evaluate new partnerships and alliances, engage in effective lobbying efforts in order to influence critical government policies, laws, regulations and taxes and finally, reduce cost structures, eliminate inefficiencies, and increase productivity to the greatest extent possible, for instance, technological application
Do you believe that Africa is ready for this kind of innovation?
Well, Fastjet is trying already.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of a single sky policy makes it difficult to operate an LCC in Africa. There is a way to do it, but this way is costly, requires some special local skills and will consume lots of time. The LCC biz concept works in Europe especially because of the open skies there.
Unite Africa, unite the skies and LCC can work as it does in Europe.
A lot of good reasons to be said for it.