AFRICAN
ANALYSIS
challenge of fitting into the
new environment, including
critical factors such as language
barriers. In addition, there are
the challenges of availability
and/ or the quality of available
public infrastructure resources;
this has led to some companies
incurring additional costs in
having to supply their own
facilities, such as electricity
generators. Movement of
goods in the African continent
comes with various regulatory
requirements. As such, you
must familiarise yourself with
the regulatory requirements of
each market you operate in to
avoid any losses or restrictions
in accessing markets.
“Africa’s floriculture industry
is one of the continent’s most
lucrative industries. Kenya is
the biggest exporter of flowers
from the continent, followed
by Ethiopia and South Africa.
However, in 2019 Kenya
experienced a ban on cut
flower exports to Australia. As
such, the year has not been the
best year in terms of growing
our economy through flower
exports.”
He goes on to mention
that the open skies initiative
has eased transport problems
within Africa and has led to a
fuller liberalisation of intra-
African air transport services
in terms of access, capacity
and frequency, along with a
free exercise of first, second,
third, fourth and fifth freedom
rights for passenger and freight
air services by eligible airlines.
(These rights, granted by
most international air service
agreements, enable, among
others, non-national carriers
to land in a state and take on
traffic coming from, or destined
for, a third state). “This has
further liberalised tariffs and
encouraged fair competition,
as well as eased the transport
problem within Africa.
Africa has bucked the negative trend in
cargo performance – yet challenges persist
“To take the continent
further up the aviation ladder,
adherence to global best
practice standards against the
background of a safe, secure
and quality environment
is needed. Liberalising visa
requirements and the SAATM
initiative will enable free
travel and cargo movement.
Liberalisation will bring
strong outcomes: new routes,
more frequent flights, better
connections and lower
fares. These improvements
will increase the number of
passengers, which will have
both direct and indirect
positive effects on trade,
business travel and tourism.”
Kenyan snapshot
Commercial Manager Peter
Musola, at Kenya Airways,
speaks of mitigating the
connectivity challenge. “We have partnerships in the form
of interline agreements with many airlines in order to reach
destinations where Kenya does not fly directly. For example,
Durban is not on our cargo network but we continue to uplift
cargo to Durban using partners in terms of air and trucking from
Johannesburg. Mwanza is also not on our current network but we
still uplift cargo to Mwanza through an interline partner.
“Compared to 2018, we have managed to uplift more cargo by
roughly 5-8%. This has been due to the stability we enjoyed in our
freighter operation in the first half of the year. Some 80% of uplift is
perishables, mainly because out of Kenya we have Dreamliners daily
on Paris, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Johannesburg and China
routes. Kenya is the third largest exporter of horticulture. All African
countries import heavily, and 95% of everything coming into the
Kenya hub is what would be termed general cargo.
“However, our belly cargo may be shrinking in line with the
capacity deployed on parts of the network, especially regionally
where there have been changes from B737 to E190 types on
some routes.”
He adds that Kenya Airways is working on a project to establish
a GDP-certified pharma warehouse and that the company is
currently fully utilising the Express centre for courier, mail and
express post.
And his dream? “We want to network more with other airlines
to help in connectivity and we invite more cargo airlines to work
with us, to be their preferred partner connecting their cargo into
the region.”
Ghana: swings and roundabouts
For Country Manager Swissport Ghana, Chris Goodsir, the year
has been something of a balancing act.
“Our current import volumes have seen a decrease of around
6% year to date, which is attributed to the current global situation
with cargo volumes. We are, however, mitigating the lack of import
volumes by managing our costs accordingly. Our export volumes
have not been doing any better, since a lower than expected
mango season output, compared to the previous year, has resulted
in a shortfall of around 700 tonnes of mangoes being exported.
However, there was an increase in the yam market, which has
subsequently compensated for the lack of mangoes, but not to the
same levels as previous years.
“There is more and more focus on the import and export
market in Ghana, the focus being on the current processes and
procedures on how import and export cargo is being handled. The
stakeholders are coming together in an effort to understand the
challenges in the industry and hopefully will assist in creating a
smoother process for the handling of all cargo. These efforts will
be greatly appreciated by the freight forwarders and hopefully
create an environment for the ease of cargo movement, which in
turn will allow more cargo to be processed through the ports. To
conclude, 2020 could be an exciting year for us.”
In the light of comments received this year, it is clear that
Africa still has plenty of issues with which to contend. Perhaps
in 2020 those green shoots will finally appear and a single sky
strategy will be implemented, to the ultimate benefit of all the
individual states.
CONNECTIVITY
CRISIS CONTINUES
AFRAA’s 51st Annual General
Assembly concluded with a call for
enhanced intra-African connectivity
through collaboration among
African airlines in order to better
tackle key challenges that are
faced; growing their market share
through intra-African networks was
also flagged up as essential.
AFRAA’s Secretary General,
Abdérahmane Berthé, added:
“Stakeholders have underscored
that the Single African Air
Transport Market and the African
Continental Free Trade Area are
major opportunities for our region,
but we need profitable and globally
competitive airlines in order to
reap the dividends. We are certain
that the insights and partnerships
from our 2019 AGA will contribute to
the momentum towards a stronger
aviation industry in Africa.”
16 December 2019 www.airlogisticsinternational.com
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