" We called Air France to tell them that flights would not resume in October. And we told them: when you're ready, you'll go. line up and queueto see if we're ready to give you back your slots. You're not the only airlines in the world; there are other airlines that could use your slots and take them. "Abdoulaye Diop, French Minister of Foreign Affairs MaliSpeaking to the media shortly after his government's decision not to authorise the resumption of Air France Paris-Bamako flights, the French President was particularly angry. For the record, the French airline suspended its flights to Mali and Burkina-Faso in Africa on 7 August, following the military coup in neighbouring Niger. But it had planned resumption of services to the Malian capital on 13 Octoberwith a non-stop flight every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, using a Boeing 777 chartered by Portuguese carrier EuroAtlantique.
This failure of the initial plan to resume Paris-Bamako flights is far from insignificant if we put it in the general context of the closure of whole swathes of African airspace, from Sudan to Libya, due to geopolitical risks. The latest example is Niger, which closed and then reopened its airspace in September, while continuing to exclude Air France. In all, the French airline has lost its daily flight to Mali, the stopover in Ouagadougou, as well as the four weekly flights to Niamey. In 2022, the French carrier will have carried 3.87 million passengers to or from Africa out of a total of 16.28 million passengers in its long-haul business, an increase of more than 28% over the year..
The question is what impact this reshuffling of the cards in West Africa will have on its position and that of its competitors. For the time being, the french airline is doing well due to its persistent returns on the continent, with premium cabins continuing to perform well in West and Central Africa for Air France and to East and South Africa for KLM. Its performance in the third quarter of 2023, marked by a load factor 2 points up on 2022 for its flights to Africa in particular, has reassured the markets, but not entirely analysts, who questioned the absence of profit forecasts for the last quarter of 2023.
Competition from African airlines
For it is the alternatives to the services suspended by Air France that are likely to take shape.the future of african skies. Competitors include several ambitious companies. The best organised to take over from Air France on certain destinations as quickly as possible is Royal Air Marocvia its Casablanca. However, the group from the Cherifian kingdom recently expressed concern about the determination of its neighbouring competitor. Air Algérie. The Algerian airline, which operates direct flights from Algiers to Dakar, AbidjanBy the end of the year, Johannesburg will be inaugurating the Algiers-Douala (Cameroon) and Algiers-Abuja (Nigeria) routes. It dreams of turning Algiers into a hub for Africa and in recent months has been acquiring new aircraft to modernise its fleet.
All the more reason to thwart the growing ambitions of Royal Air Marochas just launched its new strategic vision, accompanied by a highly targeted corporate signature under the slogans 'Dream Africa' and 'Meet Morocco'. After being hit hard by the impact of the pandemic and forced to reduce its fleet to around fifty aircraft, the airline is now looking to expand its operations in Morocco, the Moroccan company wants to quadruple it over the next 15 years by acquiring 10 new aircraft a year. The aim is to operate a fleet of 200 devices to transport 31.6 million passengers by 2037.
Africa is high on its list of priorities, as the Dream Africa campaign has been rolled out in 28 countries, including 17 on the continent. " The African market is very buoyant "said Royal Air Maroc CEO Abdelhamid Addou. Referring to Asia, he added: " There's no point in fighting in a market that's already very well covered. On the other hand, the potential is elsewhere, and we're going to go there. ". He indicated that the group had already secured the delivery of seven new aircraft for next year, and was preparing to publish specifications for future acquisitions. The emphasis is also on pilot training, with the recruitment of around one hundred cadets a year.
However, in the meantime, Africa's skies continue to be shrouded in a cloud. the reign of Ethiopian Airlines and its fleet of 140 aircraft. This fleet is set to almost double to 271 aircraft by 2035, with the company having announced the purchase of 84 aircraft at the last Dubai exhibitionbetween Boeing 787 Dreamliner, B 737 Max and Airbus A 350-900. Ethiopian Airlines serves from its Addis Ababa hub a network of 133 passenger destinations. This makes it the carrier with the most flights in Africa, with little to worry about from the ambitious RwandAir and the South African and Kenyan carriers, which have gone through a phase of financial turbulence.
West African destinations in demand
Everyone is watching closely the appetising West African market. South African Airways which came close to liquidation in 2020 has made Abidjan its twelfth African destination, served three times a week. For its part, at the request of the Nigerian government, Ethiopian Airlines led a consortium to secure a partnership in Nigeria Air. This project has been embroiled in a legal dispute and is currently struggling to materialise.
But the liberalising african skies should make a major contribution to improving the performance of all the continent's carriers through thesingle market agreement in african air transport which is gradually being endorsed by the Member States of the African Union. It should lead to the lifting of restrictions on market access and air traffic rights for African airlines, which are still in search of profitability. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the continent's airlines are still expected to post losses of 213 million dollars this year, but this is a clear improvement on 2022.
