Airlines eye Africa

Airlines eye Africa       Brussels Airlines Cargo said in late June it is adding services to four new destinations in West Africa in conjunction with its global GSA partner, European Cargo Services (ECS).
      The move is in line with growing interest by airlines in the African market despite route cutbacks in other parts of the world.
      Africa only accounts for 5 percent of global air traffic, but airlines like the higher fares they are able to command in the African market despite higher operating expenses. Demand is also increasing as foreign companies ramp up activity in Africa, local businessmen travel abroad more and Africans travel between their homeland and ethnic communities in other continents, the Wall Street Journal reported March 23. The World Cup in South Africa this summer also generated more passenger traffic.
      Infrastructure improvements at several major African airports, and the growth of African carriers with links to secondary cities, have also helped make a favorable impression on airlines.
      European carriers are the biggest outside force in Africa and are battling for market share, according to the WSJ. Air France-KLM leads the way with 42 destinations in 33 countries. Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, Swiss International Air Lines and Brussels Airlines, are working hard to overtake Air France-KLM. Together they serve 36 destinations in 31 countries.
      The Journal said airlines, especially Middle Eastern and Asian ones, could add too much capacity if they aren't careful, which could lead to a price war.
      From July, Brussels Airlines Cargo is offering four flights a week to and from Accra, Ghana, via Monrovia, Liberia. The airline will also serve Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, with two weekly flights in combination with Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
      New twice-weekly operations will also add Cotonou, Benin and Lome, Togo, to the airline's thriving network in Africa.
      The new routes will be served by an Airbus A330-300 aircraft, recently added to the airline's fleet, which has 10 tons of belly-hold capacity.
      'Our business to West Africa has proven resilient despite the economic pressures seen in other markets around the world,' said Guy Hardy, head of cargo sales for the airline. 'We expect a healthy performance to the end of the year and sustainable growth.'
      ECS has the exclusive global rights to sell Brussels Airlines' cargo capacity to all 18 destinations serviced by the airline in West Africa. In Togo, the airline will cooperate closely with Africa West Cargo, the regional all-cargo airline and a subsidiary of ECS.
   Brussels Airlines provides scheduled cargo services to Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote D'Ivoire, Gambia, Burundi, Guinea, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Angola, Kenya and Liberia.

IATA decries German departure tax
      The German government's intention to impose a new departure tax on airline passengers to help reduce greenhouse gases has the airline industry in a lather.
      'This is the worst kind of short-sighted policy irresponsibility. It's a cash-grab by a cash-strapped government. Painting it green adds insult to injury. There will be no environmental benefit from the economic damage caused,' said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association, at the organization's annual meeting and air transport summit in Berlin on June 8.
      The tax is designed to run until the European Union's approved carbon-emissions trading scheme comes into effect in 2012. German Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled the departure tax, expected to raise $1.2 billion per year, along with a host of other deficit-reduction measures.
      The tax would add about $16 per ticket and be based on factors such as the flight's noise level and fuel consumption, the government said. All-cargo carriers appear to be exempt from the tax, but the tax could impact the bottom lines of passenger airlines that carry cargo below deck.
      Bisignani criticized attempts to deal with climate change in an uncoordinated fashion and urged governments to work together to formulate a global policy towards aviation and climate change so airlines can comply with a consistent standard.
      The German proposal comes as the airline industry tries to recover from $9.4 billion in losses during 2009 and another $1.8 billion hit due to the Icelandic volcano earlier this year that grounded flights and forced others to reroute around the ash cloud.
      The European aviation market is lagging other parts of the world in recovering from the recession. It is projected to be the only region in the red this year. At the conference, IATA upgraded its full-year forecast to a profit of $2.5 billion after projecting in March industry-wide losses of $2.8 billion.
      'This is not the time to burden the aviation industry with more taxes. European GDP growth is expected to be 0.9 percent this year ' the lowest among the world's major regions. Operating in this environment, Europe's airlines will be the only region in the red with losses of $2.8 billion. This tax is a body blow to the weak economy and a fragile industry. And it is a kick in the teeth to travelers at a time when they can least afford it,' Bisignani said, according to an IATA news release.
      Bisignani said Germany should follow the lesson of the Netherlands, which tried to raise 300 million euros with a similar tax, but ended up costing the Dutch economy 1.2 billion euros in lost business and sending travelers across the border to start their trips from countries without the tax. The Netherlands eventually repealed the tax.
      Bisignani urged governments to invest more in developing biofuels for the airline industry.
      'This tax is thinly disguised as a 'green tax' when it is obviously a revenue generator for the German government. We are seeing a worrying trend for governments to misuse the 'green' label as a way of making money that does nothing for the environment,' said Sylviane Lust, director general of the International Air Carrier Association, in a statement. IACA represents airlines whose customer base is mostly leisure travelers.
      'The recent ticket tax in the Netherlands caused a significant drop in demand for flights from its airports and had to be hastily withdrawn. I would urge the German government to first research the full effects that such a tax may have on demand.
      'Following the recent ash crisis, the last thing airlines need is another blunt tax imposed on them. The EU emissions trading scheme will be penalizing enough for airlines and any more taxes will put further pressure on airlines,' Lust said.