DESPITE the exit of ceo, Adrian
Hamilton-Manns, who was
instrumental in setting up and
launching flyafrica.com in sub-Saharan
Africa, the airline plans to resume
flights.
Acting ceo and former director of
fastjet, Michael Duncan, told TNW he
could not comment on the reason for
Adrian’s resignation but added that
the airline planned to resume flights
as soon as February 12 between
Johannesburg and Harare. “We have
received our Air Operators Certificate
from Zimbabwe and we are aiming to
take to the skies by Friday.” He added
that flyafrica Namibia still wasn’t
operational but that the group was hard
at work to get the airline flying again.
Adrian was instrumental in launching
the regional LCC model in July 2014,
leveraging his experience working with
LCCs in Asia such as Mandala Airlines,
Tigerair Indonesia, Pacific Blue and
IndiGo.
Michael said Adrian’s exit would not
have any impact on the airline and that
it would continue to use the model that
he set up, adding that Adrian had done
an “impeccable job” launching the LCC.
The airline’s most recent problems
come off the back of a history of
struggles.
When the airline initially launched, its
inaugural flight on July 23, 2014, was
suspended following a decision by the
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe
(CAAZ) to revoke the airline’s South
African pilots’ validation to fly. Since
then, the airline saw its efforts to
launch in Namibia halted by a ruling
from the high court stating that the
airline's required licences to transport
passengers were not in order. Then
in October 2015, flyafrica Zimbabwe
was grounded following allegations
of fraud against its Zimbabwean
partner. By November 2015, flyafrica
Namibia had also been grounded due
to documentation that had not been
delivered to the Namibian Department
of Civil Aviation.
The reason why regional LCCs
operating in Africa battle so much,
says ceo of AASA, Chris Zweigenthal,
is because of the issues surrounding
ownership and control. “If you take
examples such as flyafrica and
fastjet, their models are based on
a multinational holding structure.
They then set up individual airlines in
different African states.” He explains
that those African states look at where
the airlines are ultimately owned and
controlled when assessing with whom
they are dealing. “As a result it’s
important that the state in question
is satisfied in terms of safety and
financial requirements.”
Legacy carriers will go to great
lengths to make it as difficult as
possible for new LCCs to enter the
market, says Gavin Simpson, ceo of
Holiday Aviation. “In order to protect
their market share and high-fare
business models, the loss-making,
government-owned, legacy carriers
oppose the AOC and Foreign Operators
Permit by raising every possible
objection to these new LCC
entrants.”
Richard Bodin, cco of
fastjet, says that acquiring the
licences to operate between
country A and country B
can often be a “long drawnout
bureaucratic and often
politically influenced process”,
adding that it took three years
for fastjet to acquire the
licence to operate between
Tanzania and Kenya. “The
standard LCC cookie-cutter
model used in the rest of
the world has to be adapted
to fit the African landscape
from a cultural, technological
and distribution channel
perspective,” says Richard.
For example, LCC air ticket
sales would normally be driven
through website channels,
however Richard says that
fastjet had to “drastically
adapt (its) distribution strategy
to suit what’s on the ground,
by going through call centres
and by embracing relationships
with travel agents.”
TNW was unable to reach
Adrian for comment.
