The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has revised its loss estimates for the airline sector upwards. Its leaders urge African countries to coordinate their actions, including their health protocols, in order to limit the damage.
For its part, AFRAA offers an interactive capacity-sharing portal for airlines. This portal was created under the auspices of the strategic partnership between AFRAA and the ACC Aviation Group. It will provide airlines with access to advanced services to support the development of the African aviation industry.
On August 12, 2020, during the launch, a virtual capacity building workshop demonstrated the functionality of the tool to airlines.
“Cooperation between airlines is essential for the sustainability of the airline industry,” comments AFRAA. The portal, powered by ACC Aviation Group, provides airlines with a platform to share capacity and increase daily use of aircraft.
On the one hand, operators have the possibility to make offers on the availability of their planes and to consult the list of planes offered for rental. Whether it is for manned planes, bare-hull rentals, planes for sale, as well as for the use of planes on long standby in stopovers.
On the other hand, users can make rental or service requests. Indeed, as airlines redefine their business models, network and fleet, AFRAA and ACC offer restructuring consulting services to help them develop short and medium term plans.
A long-term tool!
“This platform is a tool to strengthen cooperation between AFRAA members,” said AFRAA Secretary General Abderahmane Berthé. This, in order to ensure that African operators “provide solutions to African challenges with win-win benefits for all operators involved in the sharing of aircraft capacities”.
Of course, the intention of the Association is for this platform to endure well beyond the pandemic crisis. “Currently, planes calling at some airports offer great opportunities for airlines to serve new destinations without investing in additional planes.”
Airlines have been encouraged to register and use the platform to exploit opportunities for improved operations. A second edition of the capacity building workshop will be held in the coming days, for potential clients. Namely service providers, civil aviation authorities, logistics entities and other stakeholders in the supply chain.
Recovery hoped for in the third trimester!
AFRAA has therefore revised upwards its forecast of lost revenue for mainland carriers to $ 8.56 billion from $ 8.1 billion estimated in its first analysis published on June 2.
Passenger revenues of African carriers fell by 17.3% ($ 506 million) in the first quarter of 2020. The shortfall was greater in the second quarter: $ 2.740 billion, or 90.2% less compared to 2019.
In June alone, the capacity offered by African airlines, expressed in available seat-kilometers (ASK) fell 76.24% year-on-year, the Association notes. She nevertheless considers that “the recovery should start from the middle of the third quarter”. The Association expects air traffic to resume 30% at the end of September, and 65% at the end of the year.
To do this, she said, it is necessary to apply the guidelines issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). These include, but are not limited to, mask wear, physical distancing, routine disinfection, drug testing, awareness raising, and contact tracing to effectively isolate any traveler who may be contagious.
Finally, AFRAA urges African governments to consider bailouts to offset heavy losses and lower operating costs. The aviation industry supports some 6.2 million jobs and contributes 2.6% to Africa’s GDP.
“Many companies have liquidity problems which lead to a risk of insolvency and possibly even bankruptcy,” Abderahmane Berthé told RFI. The secretary general clarified: “Many African states have announced financial support for their company, which they hold most often.”
AFRAA’s recovery plan, drawn up in April 2020, includes actions to overcome the Covid-19 crisis. They are anchored on nine pillars, governments, regulators, service providers, customers, maintenance, cost management, freight operations, workforce and service continuity. The portal currently being finalized addresses actions under the pillars on cost management, freight operations and service continuity.
