SNBA to West Africa?

[sn26567]

BTW, is there some news about that Belgian airline that wanted to fly to Lomé

I guess you are talking about BEAP (Belgian Employees Airline Promotion), the airline of former Sabena employees.

The project is still alive, but the big problem is funding. You can follow it on www.beap.be

[liebensd]

Is there a connection between the new flights of SNBA to Mombassa and the SLR1823 to Mombassa and Zanzibar?

Greetz,

Dave

[sn26567]

Is there a connection between the new flights of SNBA to Mombassa and the SLR1823 to Mombassa and Zanzibar?

That would surprise me. SLR took over the Mombasa flights of CityBird and caters only for tourists in fully organised trips, whereas SN BA will pick up business passengers as well as tourists that want to organise their trips themselves. And of course the 120 seats already booked by travel agencies.

[SN30952]

As a former Pool & Commercial Agreements manager with SN, I can assure you that Africa always has been a risky business. Although nobody ever believed me, the best revenue on african lines always has been the Missionary fare (as was the DGLA -Foreign labour fare- on concerned destinations). Better then any fare, this fare was simple in its structure and best of all, missionaries pay their tickets. Only probleem they take only ow's. And as this fare was a governement fare it was not included in any revenue share...
All other fares were subject to sharing, royalties, named it, the Africans imposed on good revenue as well as on lesser revenue. To avoid having to pay the lot, SN had to make fake traffic reports. Now experienced staff knew what the real traffic was and how it was hidden in the 'african figures jungle'. I am afraid the people making the traffic prognoses lost their way in that jungle... Furthermore the tractor of this traffic is a third party, top this with a codesharing american, and SNBA will know with certainty what the real costs are, only within month after date. Talking about closing destinations? Sobelair knows why, so wait and see.

[Sabena_690]

x BEAP: investor is waiting due to the economical downturn

x SNBA: I think that, instead of buying/leasing bigger aircrafts, it's more economical to buy/lease another A330 and increase the frequency?

Regards
Frederic

[bravo767]

x BEAP: investor is waiting due to the economical downturn

x SNBA: I think that, instead of buying/leasing bigger aircrafts, it's more economical to buy/lease another A330 and increase the frequency?

Regards
Frederic

Hello
SN30952 is right is some of his statements but Africa definitely has a good yield and a very good impact on the overall situation of SNBA. And this despite the fees that SNBA has to pay to the local operator in compensation for exploiting the line (I have been told 300$ per pax in Luanda!!!!).
Still, it is quite easy to make a rough calculation. When you add all the costs (fuel, landing and ofly fees, leasing, maintenance, crew, escale etc.) and you divide by the number of seats taking into account that a business seat is 3X an economy seat, you have a cost of 25$ per seat per flight hour. On the ticket price you have the various taxes and the commissions you have to pay to the various 'authorities'. Cargo yield ranges from 0.80 to 2.50 $ per Kg and a lot more than that for parcels(mail). You can shake it all together, but with the occupancy that we have on African lines, I don't see how we could loose money.
For time beeing, the A330 is certainly the best economical aircraft to operate within our market. And yes it would be better to have some more of them. The critical number is 6!! that means 5 AC flying full time and the 6th being a spare for all the short and long checks as well as back up for AOG's. In some future dreams....

BEAP as well as UP(MD11 cargo project) are both confronted to the problem of finding thrusfull and generous investors.... but there is still good hope.
As for BUA it was an hoax since the beginning. The project originated from Canada and there were shares on the Nasdaq. With a lot of publicity around that "fabulous" opportunity, those shares took a steady good rise turning in millions profit for the promoters. They are now facing scrutinity from the SEC and will probably be sentenced to some jail term.

Happy landings