rukundo wrote:
CDG Dar Es Salaam route closed closed in the 90s. More info here. Since few years AF seems to want to rebuilt irs old network in East Africa, which is rather served by KLM.
Nairobi, Zanzibar, Dar Es Salaam. Who will be the next destination in East Africa for AF? Bujumbura (Burundi)? Entebbe (Uganda)? Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)? Kigali (Rwanda)? On Addis Ababa I don't really believe in it. Ethiopian Airlines locks its market very well. Khartoum in Sudan? I don't believe it either. The presence of companies from the Middle East is very present and Sudan is a difficult destination to make profitable. Even if the economic embargo was lifted in 2020, the Sudanese economy is still suffering and political instability still there with coups (2019 and 2021). About Juba (South Sudan), Asmara (Eritrea) and Mogadishu I think it is not in the map.
Small mistake: Tana is served by B777 and not by B787-9
Morocco, Ivory Coast, Kenya… Air France, what ambitions for 2023? https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1397702/ec ... s-en-2023/The French flag, which displays on the continent a level of sales close to that of 2019, plans to strengthen in East Africa, but also in Nigeria, Mali and Benin.
" Resilient ". This is the word used by Olivier Piette, flight program director at Air France, to describe his company's activity in Africa. The area, which had been one of the first to recover in 2020, is, according to him, only "a few points below" its level of activity in 2019, driven by its flagship destinations - first and foremost Abidjan. and Dakar – but also by the opening of the route to Zanzibar, via Kenya, inaugurated in the winter of 2021.
Thus, the Air-France KLM network generated 1.291 billion euros in sales in the Africa Middle East zone in the first half of 2022, compared to 1.357 billion euros in 2019, a decrease of 4.9%, compared to 13 .2% overall.
Better, the company has already planned to offer, from the second half of 2023, more capacity to sub-Saharan Africa than before the crisis, even if, acknowledges Olivier Piette, "the growth potential there is now more limited than 'elsewhere', with Air France already having a strong presence on the continent.
Thus, the Air-France KLM network generated 1.291 billion euros in sales in the Africa Middle East zone in the first half of 2022, compared to 1.357 billion euros in 2019, a decrease of 4.9%, compared to 13 .2% overall.
Better, the company has already planned to offer, from the second half of 2023, more capacity to sub-Saharan Africa than before the crisis, even if, acknowledges Olivier Piette, "the growth potential there is now more limited than 'elsewhere', with Air France already having a strong presence on the continent.
Direction Tanzania, first African destination in 2022 (2023 I would say ^^)
The carrier has nevertheless planned to open, on June 12, the Dar-es-Salam destination, which will be coupled to Zanzibar, in order to serve Kenya on a direct daily line, "which will mechanically increase our capacities towards Kenya, since some of the seats had previously been occupied by passengers traveling to Zanzibar", specifies the program director.
The coupling with Zanzibar will allow Air France to secure its new route, while the Tanzanian capital was recently abandoned by Lufthansa due to lack of profitability. "There is a real complementarity between the two destinations, Zanzibar is very touristy while Dar-es-Salam will meet the demand for cargo transport and bring in business customers", explains Olivier Piette.
For us, Tanzania is a perennial destination
The French company takes all the less risk with Tanzania as the country, which has only 28 international air connections (compared to 40 for Kenya and South Africa), can already present itself, ahead of Egypt, as the number one tourist destination in the Africa/Middle East region in 2022 according to ForwardKeys, which is based on airline ticket sales. Lufthansa had also combined its departure from Dar-es-Salam with an increase in frequencies to Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro.
On KLM land
This development of Air France in East Africa, traditionally the preserve of KLM, is being done "in a coordinated and complementary manner" with the Dutch partner of the French company, assures Olivier Piette, specifying that "the days of operation of the two companies will be complementary to offer an almost daily service "of Zanzibar, from Paris or Amsterdam. The exercise is further facilitated by the fact that KLM, still faced with operational difficulties – in particular congestion at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport – is not currently in a position to expand its network itself. But Air France does not see its new route as a simple fallback position until its partner raises its head. "For us, Tanzania is a perennial destination", says Olivier Piette.
Alongside this opening of the line, Air France also aims to switch to daily service to Lagos – against five frequencies per week currently – and to increase its frequencies to Antananarivo, from four to five weekly flights. On this destination, the company has also planned to replace its Boeing 787s with Airbus A350s, "latest generation aircraft that offer more capacity, 25% lower fuel consumption and 40% less noise and the latest travel cabins (Economy, Premium Economy and Business)”, specifies the company. A movement already operated at the beginning of November on the destinations Bamako and Libreville.
In Benin, the wish of the French flag to increase its frequencies from five to seven weekly services concomitantly with the arrival of Corsair having clashed with the local authorities, Air France has so far only added one flight, but is confident about going daily on April 1.
No scheduled coordination with Air Côte d'Ivoire
Asked about the future of the destination Abidjan when Air Côte d'Ivoire, of which Air France is a minority shareholder, will have taken possession of its A330s and will fly to Paris in 2025, Olivier Piette is formal: for him, he is "no way to get out of this market". "We will study the possibilities", he declares, assuring that "it would be logical to open a classic cooperation, of the code-sharing type", but that "two competing companies, even with a commercial partnership, do not 'have no right to coordinate their flight plan'.
A point also highlighted on the question of the increase in capacity between Paris and Nairobi: Kenya Airways, a partner of Air France-KLM via the Skyteam alliance, also operates this route on a daily basis.
Air France's activity in North Africa is more difficult to analyze: in the results, Maghreb destinations are mixed with European cities in the group's medium-haul network. Olivier Piette, however, specifies that the figures for Morocco and Algeria are better than before the crisis: "Our growth in Algeria comes from the fact that, like Transavia, we have recovered part of the rights of Aigle Azur [which went bankrupt in September 2019, Ed]. As for Morocco, we have increased our frequencies there to Marrakech and opened routes between Orly and Casablanca, in addition to those that existed from Roissy, "he explains.
Transavia in Dakar: "no impact" on Air France's results
Move along, nothing to see. Asked about the consequences, in terms of attendance, of the arrival of Transavia, its low-cost subsidiary, in Dakar – with weekly flights from Nantes since May and from Lyon since the beginning of November – Olivier Piette believes that there were none.
“We have complementary products and we target different markets,” he explains. What Nicolas Hénin, deputy general manager of Transavia France, had also assured Jeune Afrique in September.
Above all, the air market between France and Senegal, drastically constrained by bilateral agreements between the two countries, still enjoys greater demand than supply, which makes it particularly comfortable to operate for airlines.
N.F.
