A ONE-size-fits-all,
European-style, panAfrican
Low Cost Carrier
(LCC) model does not
work in Africa because of
continued protectionism
and regulatory constraints
imposed by separate
African states, says fastjet
ceo, Nico Bezuidenhout.
He was speaking at the
recent AviaDev Aviation
Development Conference
held in Cape Town.
“When you are dealing
with 54 independent
states and 54 different
AOC’s (air operator’s
certificates), the ambition
to be a pan-African carrier
is quite grandiose if you
have a single cookie-cutter
type of approach,” he
said. Instead, fastjet was
now acting as regional
feeder carrier, he said,
“with the cost advantage
of focusing on aircraft
utilisation and people
productivity”.
Nico said market
access had been
“one of [his] biggest
challenges, frustrations
and disappointments at
fastjet”. “There needs
to be more conviction,
well beyond the Single
African Air Transport
Market (SAATM). There
needs to be action
towards a greater level
of standardisation at civil
aviation authority level,”
he said.
His views were echoed
during a panel discussion
about the future of LCC’s
in Africa. Sylvain Bosc,
fastjet chief commercial
officer, said the SAATM
made no real impact on
LCCs as it applied to
intra-continental travel
while LCCs mainly served
domestic markets. For
intra-continental LCC’s
to have a future, more
African countries needed
to provide a level playing
field with their state
carriers and stable
economic environments
conducive to private
sector investment.
Girma Wake, former
ceo of Ethiopian Airlines
and former chairman of
RwandAir, said LCCs in
Africa operated in a high
cost environment, their
costs being the same as
those of legacy carriers,
including a high fuel price
and crippling airport taxes,
which prevented proper
LCC operations.
Gwenvael RonsinHardy,
senior project
manager of EGIS Airport
Operation, advised African
governments to incentivise
LCCs. Africa World Airline
commercial head, Richard
Kyereh, suggested African
governments and airports
cut their aviation charges,
while Ahmed Aly, ceo of
Nile Air, pointed out that
visa restrictions presented
a major hurdle to LCC
development in Africa.
