Interview with LH Group's Sales Director for Africa. As often coming from Jeune Afrique, it's quite interesting. Article reserved for subscribers, but I put it in full.
The group is interested to acquire the capital of an African airline. No name cited.
The resuming of Conakry and Ouagadougou ((suspended due to covid)) seem to be positive. Project to add a tenth A330 for Brussels Airlines.
Most of their passengers from Dakar have France as their final destination, and 35% go to Paris
Brussels Airlines has 7 crew bases in Africa: Entebbe, Monrovia, Cotonou, Abidjan, Lomé, Kinshasa and Dakar. So during the coup in Burkina Faso a few days ago, the crew was in Abidjan.
Addis Ababa (Lufthansa), Dar Es Salaam and also Nairobi (Swiss) routes are definitively closed, they have been replaced by Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro, served by Lufthansa and Edelweiss Airlines
About the network, the journalist of JA asks if there is not also a demand to Africa from the departure of Zurich, Vienna or Frankfurt. The group's sales director for sub-Saharan Africa explains that Lufthansa focuses more on Southern and Eastern Africa (therefore Anglophones), when Brussels Airlines focuses on mainly French-speaking West Africa. No planning to open routes (at least no word in the article). This current network suits to the group.
The group has 3 maintenance bases (Lufthansa Technik): Egypt, South Africa and Rwanda. Project to establish bases in West Africa.
From DR Congo, Liberia and Rwanda, the group provides City Check-in. In Kigali, it seems to me that it is at the Hotel des Milles Collines, it belonged to Sabena.
He also talsk about the difficulties to fly in Africa: blocked funds, coup d'etat, fuel shortages, insecurity,...
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Lufthansa Group: “Investing in an African airline? And why not ? » https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1384374/ec ... mq0rOxGLTQ
Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss or Edelweiss: how are flights to Africa managed in the event of a coup or a shortage of kerosene? How do you minimize the commercial risk when opening a new line? Some answers with Philippe Saeys-Desmedt, sales director for sub-Saharan Africa for the German group.
It is at the headquarters of Brussels Airlines – open-plan offices not far from Brussels-Zaventem airport – that Philippe Saeys-Desmedt, sales director for sub-Saharan Africa for the Lufthansa group since November 2018, receives us.
No geographical change, therefore, for the one who was, before the acquisition of 100% of Brussels Airlines by the Lufthansa group (which includes, in addition to the German company of the same name, Austrian, Swiss, Edelweiss or even Eurowings Discover), the vice- president for Africa of the Belgian flag.
And for good reason: Brussels Airlines wants to be the flagship of the group on the continent, it is from the "competence center" in Brussels that all African destinations are managed, all companies combined. A rapprochement that took place in October 2018 between the commercial services, gradually joined in 2021 and 2022 by the network management, pricing, revenue management and finally marketing services – only the crews, corresponding to the certificate air carrier (AOC) of each of the companies, remain in the respective operational bases of the different flags. A centralization beneficial for the speed of decision-making, our interlocutor welcomes. Meet.
Jeune Afrique: Less than three months after returning to Ouagadougou on June 10, Brussels Airlines had to interrupt its service due to the September 30 coup. How do we deal with this type of problem?
Philippe Saeys-Desmedt: We can operate as long as the aeronautical authorities of a country keep the air border open. In general, border closure situations do not last very long.
A few days in this specific case, during which we had to cancel two flights, because it was a case of force majeure. The major concern is passengers stranded in place. In accordance with international rules, they are our responsibility and we are doing our best to reroute them on the first possible plane, the problem being that we had no visibility on when the airspace would be accessible again. We couldn't do anything but wait.
How do you ensure the safety of your cabin crew?
We have several crew bases: in Abidjan, Monrovia, Dakar, Lomé, Cotonou, Kinshasa and Entebbe. The crew making the Ouagadougou line is based in Abidjan, and was there when the borders were closed on Friday evening.
Lufthansa has stopped flights to Addis Ababa and Dodoma, but increased frequencies to Mombasa, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar
We also have local staff, and as an employer, our priority is to ensure the safety of our agents. As soon as the first shots rang out in town, we made sure that all of our staff got home safely. All the work of reorientation, change of reservations etc. could be done remotely.
In recent months, Senegal and other African countries such as Nigeria or South Africa have experienced jet fuel shortages. How do you handle these episodes?
It happened to me once, thirty-three years ago, to have a 250-passenger plane land at an African airport and to hear me say that it was out of fuel. Something to give chills!
But in general we are warned in advance, which allows us to study the alternatives, in the region or on the return flight, depending on the distance and the weight limitations on landing. We often choose Spain: Barcelona or Malaga. It takes two more hours, but at least the passengers are traveling.
How have services to Africa evolved within the Lufthansa group since the takeover of Brussels Airlines?
At the time of the merger, Brussels Airlines had 17 routes to sub-Saharan Africa. After the Covid [and the heavy restructuring suffered by the company], we went from 10 to 8 long-haul, and we therefore had to close 2 stops, Ouagadougou and Conakry. Today, the Covid being, hopefully, over, the business will therefore resume. We have already reinjected a new device in June, which allowed us to reopen Ouagadougou and Conakry.
On the Lufthansa side, we had to close, for economic reasons, Addis Ababa and Dar-Es-Salaam, but we increased our frequencies on Mombasa, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. In addition, in Ethiopia, although our presence is no longer visible, we have nevertheless maintained our alliances with Ethiopian, which sells us shares on this line.
Doesn't an alliance of this type hamper the search for new ports of call to serve on our own?
I do not believe. Like any carrier, what we are going to look at above all is simply profitability, because opening a stopover is expensive, planes are expensive, fuel too – it has increased by 110% since the start of the war in Ukraine.
So you have to be really careful what you are doing. But once we have developed an action plan and the numbers we are offered are positive, we go there. The most striking example is Windhoek in Namibia, where we started with 3 flights per week hoping that it would work, then we went from 3 to 6, then to 7 and finally to 10 flights per week, and that in the space of fifteen months.
35% of passengers departing from Dakar go to Paris – that’s huge
When you open a new line, is there a post-Covid effect that makes you much more pressing than before for it to reach profitability?
It takes time for a new line to find its audience, especially after the Covid, where we realize that some countries are slower to resume than others. In the case of Conakry and Ouagadougou, however, the risk is minimized, because both are linked to another stopover: Conakry is linked to Dakar, and Ouagadougou to Abidjan. Therefore, even if a stopover does not initially fulfill the objectives assigned to it, the other will complete.
Since we opened these two stops, we have met our expectations and we already know that the introduction of the new aircraft will not be called into question by the group. We are even already thinking of a tenth device!
The Lufthansa group has made Brussels Airlines its flagship for African destinations. Does this mean that demand would not be there from Frankfurt, Vienna or Zurich?
We are not so far from the balance: Brussels Airlines serves 17 cities in Africa, Lufthansa and Swiss 14, not counting Mauritius and the Seychelles, which our subsidiary Edelweiss operates seasonally.
In maintenance, West Africa is a land to be exploited
Our distribution is also a question of language: Lufthansa has specialized in destinations in East and Southern Africa, as well as those in oil-producing countries. It serves Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Namibia and Kenya, while Belgium is more likely to operate in French-speaking countries, even if we also have some English-speaking countries in our network, such as Gambia , Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda. But 60 to 75% of our flights go to French-speaking countries.
Moreover, most of our passengers from Dakar have France as their final destination, and 35% go to Paris – that’s huge.
What about cargo?
It is Lufthansa that markets cargo capacity to all of our destinations – including on Brussels Airlines airliners, which gives it a considerable network.
It also operates full cargo routes, particularly to South Africa, Kenya, and opportunistically West Africa.
In maintenance operations (MRO), where are you present in Africa?
Lufthansa Technik, the parent company for this activity, is the largest in the world, but we still have a lot to do in Africa. Our current three bases in Egypt, Rwanda and South Africa should be just the start. West Africa, in particular, is a field to be exploited.
Intra-African transport, which is overflowing with possibilities, especially in West Africa, should be developed.
Does the Lufthansa group have the interest or the desire to invest in an African company?
And why not ? We did it well with the Italian company Air Dolomiti, so we already have this type of cooperation, nothing prevents us from doing it also in Africa, if we find the right partner and the business plan is positive. It must be well studied, both parties must agree on everything, even the smallest details.
[As a reminder, between 2010 and 2015, Brussels Airlines and the Forrest International Group tried to launch a regional company in the DRC, Korongo Airlines, Ed]
I think there are enough lines between Europe and Africa. What should be developed is intra-African transport, there are immense possibilities, especially in West Africa, if only in Nigeria.
But this country is experiencing enormous problems of repatriation of revenue for foreign companies. How do you react to it?
Indeed, there are transfer problems when you sell tickets in naira: it can take eight months before you can recover your revenue, at the very least. This is a major obstacle to aerial development. As far as we are concerned, we have limited our sales from Nigeria and reduced our frequencies: we have gone from 7 to 5 frequencies to Lagos, which also impacted the Malabo stopover served by the same flight.
To read
You have also just issued, in Europe, “green” tariffs supposed to compensate for the CO2 emissions of the flight. Can it be transposed to Africa?
This is not currently considered. On the other hand, we sell sustainable aviation fuel there. We signed five contracts in Nigeria recently. It is something that is starting to develop, not fast enough for my taste. It is not yet a priority in some countries, but I believe it will become one in the next year or two, because quotas will gradually be put in place. Western companies will impose it on themselves, and many states will follow and make it a condition to operate on their platforms.
Is this not likely to accentuate the chasm between African companies, many of which are already losing a lot of money, and very powerful international companies?
It is a risk, and it is why sustainable fuel is not a priority for the moment in Africa. But it's started to grow, and it's a movement that won't stop.
City check-in in Kinshasa, Monrovia and Kigali
To stand out in the generous offer between Europe and Africa, Brussels Airlines boasts of the human size of Brussels-Zaventem airport. An “easy transit airport”, judge Philippe Saeys-Desmedt.
Another feature offered by the Belgian company in the cities of Kinshasa, Monrovia and Kigali, a City Check-in in the city center where passengers can check in and drop off their luggage during the day before taking their evening flight, simply with their boarding pass and hand luggage. A service that allows "better punctuality of flights departing from Africa", rejoices the sales director.
Rwanda Aviation News (Drones, Air Force, Civil Aviation, Space, Air Balloon): https://www.facebook.com/RwandAn-Flyer-153177931456873