African Aviation News

[Geza Ulole]

KQ saga: Workers offered paid leave

[Geza Ulole]

9th December 12
Fastjet shakes Dar`s aviation sector
Staff Writer
The entry of a low cost airline into Tanzania’s skies is causing panic and uncertainty among local airlines with Precisionair and Air Tanzania facing a tough business future, The Guardian on Sunday can reveal today.

The low cost airline backed by Easy Jet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou hit Tanzania’s skies two weeks ago, bringing low-cost flights to thousands of people in the country.
Dubbed Fastjet, the no-frills carrier is expected to dent the profit margin of the country’s only big private airline, Precisionair as well as the struggling Air Tanzania, which resumed its services two months ago.
The move comes after Haji-Ioannou's EasyGroup teamed up earlier this month with pan-African conglomerate Lonrho to create the low-cost carrier. Lonhro, owner of budget airline Fly540, has agreed to sell its aviation business to investment firm Rubicon Diversified Investments, in which EasyGroup will hold a 5 percent stake.
Apart from Tanzania, the new airline would also start operations using the Lonrho existing network in Ghana, Kenya and Angola, before expanding to more markets in the future.
According to a survey conducted by The Guardian on Sunday, Precisionair has been affected by the new low cost airline, which charges $20(Sh32,000) excluding taxes and other airport charges.
Though Precisionair this week said it wasn’t threatened by the new low cost airline, the reality on the ground shows the opposite because the airline has been forced to review its fares immediately to cope with the growing competition.
The airline claimed that it was banking its hopes on customers’ loyalty and quality services, dismissing reports that it was facing a tough situation following the entry of the low-cost airline in Tanzania’s aviation market.
December-January is normally the season where Precisionair takes advantage of the high number of passengers traveling during the holidays, to ‘make a killing.’
But, this time around, the airline has been forced to reduce its fares especially for the Dar-Mwanza route, which is the most profitable due to the high number of passengers.
For the past four years, fares for Dar-Mwanza route during holidays season have been averaging between Sh320,000 and Sh380,000 for a return ticket economy class.
However for the past two weeks, Precisionair has been charging between Sh179,000 and Sh200,000 on the basis of details gathered by The Guardian on Sunday.
Air Tanzania, the national carrier, has also maintained its fares charging nearly similar with what its main rival, Precisionair is currently charging for the Dar-Mwanza route.
Precisionair operates three flights a day for the Dar-Mwanza route. ATCL operates one flight a day for the same route, while Fast Jet operates two flights a day.
Both Precisionair and ATCL use the Boeing 737 series for the Dar-Mwanza route, while FastJet has deployed Airbus A319, with a carriage capacity of 150 passengers and crew.
“This is not competition, this is spoiling the aviation business…what’s happening isn’t good for the future of the aviation in Tanzania and hopefully the Fair Competition Commission will intervene,” a senior officer from Precisionair who spoke under condition of anonymity told the Guardian on Sunday.
Many still don’t believe the announced $20(Sh32,000) for one way between Dar-Mwanza, but what transpired last week when FastJet launched its operation proved wrong, ‘the doubting Thomases.’
In clarification, the Chief Executive Officer of the FastJet airline, Ed Winter noted that average fares are expected to be $80 (Sh120,000) for return ticket, but by starting the airline will charge as low as $ 20 one-way excluding taxes and other charges for customers who book early. An official from Air Tanzania who declined to be named because he is not the authorized spokesperson told The Guardian on Sunday, “This more than competition…this is a ‘Tsunami.”
“We are still studying the situation before making any move but at the end of the day, it will affect all of us,” the ATCL official told the Guardian on Sunday.
FastJet’s aim is to change Fly540 into a much bigger airline based on the low-cost model which has been successful in every other part of the world.
The company plans to carry around 12 million passengers per year, "which creates an airline of roughly 40 aircraft," according to Richard Blakesley, FastJet's finance director. FastJet officials say they hope to tap Africa's rather underdeveloped aviation network, offering an affordable alternative in a transport environment largely dominated by difficult terrains, long bus journeys and poor infrastructure.
According to inside information, the company plays its calculations on economies of scales. The company says past experience shows by halving fares, a successful low-cost carrier can encourage people, who have never previously traveled by air, to fly. For Africa, with its densely populated cities separated by great distances – this means a potential new market of millions.
In 2011, low-cost carriers occupied 9 percent of the African market, suggesting that there is a large potential for further development and growth, aviation expert Linden Birns told Cable News Network online edition last week.
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has forecast Africa traffic to expand by about 6.5 percent per annum in next decade and by 4.9 percent between 2021 and 2030, to a 20-year growth rate of 5.7 percent thereafter. This compares with a 4.8 percent increase in demand on a worldwide basis over the next 20 years.
The concept of low cost airline
There is no absolutely sharp difference between the so-called low cost carriers (LCC) and the traditional airlines, which are also called full cost carriers (FCC). Low cost carriers could be defined as airlines which operate on relatively short distances in a certain region without offering additional services.
GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/fun...le.php?l=48827

[bantugbro]

...And to cap it all, Fastjet is acquiring 1time airline of SA.

[Geza Ulole]

Airline alliances focus on Africa while Africa focuses on itself at last


BY DR. WOLFGANG H. THOME, ETN UGANDA | DEC 07, 2012
(eTN) - While Asia seems to be the present focus of airline alliances, and for good reasons considering the huge growth markets of China and India – the latter rapidly liberalizing now and offering new investment opportunities – Africa remains on the map of all three major global networks - Star, SkyTeam, and OneWorld.

Aviation on the continent remains fragmented, often caused by national egos, prepared to give foreign airlines greater access to their skies than airlines from neighboring countries or from across the continent. This has led to a sharply-increased market share by the Gulf giants like Emirates, Qatar Airways, and increasingly Etihad, too, with Turkish Airlines playing successful catch up, eyeing 40 African destinations by the end of 2013.

European legacy carriers like Lufthansa – combined with Brussels Airlines and Swiss, Air France, and British Airways have also cemented their positions of routing traffic into and out of Africa.

But while intercontinental connectivity from and to Africa can only be described as between good and excellent, the bulk of the travelers use foreign airlines, leaving the main African airlines to struggle for market share.

In addition to this battle for the skies between airlines, unfolds the battle between the global alliances.

Star Alliance has three key African airlines in their stable - Egypt Air, Ethiopian, and South African - effectively covering the continent directly and indirectly, as Ethiopian, through their stake in ASKY, also offers a foothold in West Africa. Ethiopian remains the biggest asset for Star in Africa, presently being the largest airline on the continent, the first to fly the B787 Dreamliner and the one with the largest network from their Addis Ababa hub.

In contrast, South African Airways appears in crisis after most of the board and key management figures resigned in recent months and no clear strategy is evident about such crucial issues as destination roll out on the continent or the overdue fleet renewal. Star Alliance is reportedly seeking ways and means to assist government-owned South African to resolve their challenges and continue to play a key role to serve Africa from the southern end of the continent.

Egypt Air, after a turbulent 2011 when the fallout of the country’s political crisis took its toll, has left the worst behind them, but worries remain over the latest political unrest, which could bring back crisis mode to North Africa’s largest airline.

SkyTeam’s African member, Kenya Airways, offers their alliance partners access across the continent, and plans are afoot to connect every African political and commercial capital with flights to Nairobi by the end of next year. KLM’s shareholding in Kenya Airways and two seats on the board are considered immensely valuable to shape the future strategy for Kenya Airways and align it with AF/KLM’s own objectives of how to remain a major player on the continent.

At least one source close to SkyTeam has indicated that the world’s second largest alliance is looking for another foothold in Africa, with carriers in North and West Africa being courted, but nothing concrete has emerged as yet and as long as Kenya Airways continues to increase its own footprint on the continent, SkyTeam’s interests remain looked after, for now.

This leaves OneWorld, already in the unenviable third spot of the global alliances, completely unrepresented in Africa by any partner from among the leading African airlines, an omission which might prove costly in the longer term as the continent increasingly stands taller with a rising economic clout after the discovery of more and more gas and oil deposits in particular along the Eastern African coastline. African connectivity for OneWorld will greatly improve when Qatar Airways will formally join next year but still leave the alliance trailing in terms of flights, destinations, and passengers.

But while the alliances are vying for superiority in Africa, Kenya Airways’ CEO, Dr. Titus Naikuni, has, at the recently-concluded AFRAA General Assembly, done the unthinkable, or hitherto unthinkable, when he urged fellow aviation leaders Ethiopian and South African to consider an African airline partnership, if not outright merger between the three. While still small in global terms, the three would nevertheless be able to spur an airline renaissance for Africa and build critical mass, urgently needed to stand any chance over the coming decade to survive the onslaught of the likes of Emirates, Turkish, and others spreading their wings into Africa.

Time to think big, time to bring NEPAD’s vision for the continent into African aviation?

A source close to AFRAA in Nairobi let it on that such an African alliance would get their fullest support, and in spite of a different alliance parentage, ET and SAA being in the Star camp and Kenya Airways being in the SkyTeam camp, perhaps for once Africa’s strategic interest could supersede foreign interests and in the process create a continental aviation force able to hold its own and become a pioneer for Africa’s march towards becoming this century’s global economic powerhouse.
http://www.eturbonews.com/32642/airl...es-itself-last

MY TAKE
Every country in Africa has her own objectives! For instance Tanzania aims at doubling the number of tourists in her parks with the opening of the un-visited Southern Park and so far the likes of Kenya airways that has been plying in most of her airports has been not facilitating that but "making a kill" out of Tanzania's efforts to crop up numbers for instance a ticket price to Nairobi from Dar is 1/2 the price of a ticket from Nairobi to Dar the same kms and the same landing charges! Therefore the writer did not cover the issue appropriate the demise of African airlines is a result of greedy by the owners of these airlines and not ego since at the first place these countries have opened up her borders for these airlines to fly in and i don't see a reason for them not to do the same to those airlines from out of the continent esp. if they r affordable and they will fit well with their ambitions! I call that simple economics that omits out greedy by some greedy neighbors i only feel pity for the likes of ET but not KQ sorry they need to cut the ticket cost or perish

[Geza Ulole]

Probe KQ deal, House team says

PHOTO | FILE Aviation and Allied Workers Union chairperson Perpetua Mponjiwa addresses journalists at the Kenya Airways headquarters after the Industrial Court ordered the 545 retrenched staff be reinstated. NATION MEDIA GROUP

IN SUMMARY

In a report tabled in Parliament on Thursday afternoon, the Labour and Social Welfare Committee also attributed the airline’s precarious financial position to “mismanagement, corruption and negligence”
Amboseli Ltd and Samburu Ltd are registered in the Cayman Islands and had at the end of September been used to acquire planes worth Sh5.3 billion
Kenya Airways says the companies “have been incorporated by the airline’s lenders – Standard Chartered Bank and African Export Import Bank – as part of a financing arrangement in order to facilitate purchase of 10 new Embraer ERJ-190 aircraft from Embraer S.A., South America.”
The government should investigate the relationship between Kenya Airways and two companies registered in the Cayman Islands, a parliamentary committee has said.

In a report tabled in Parliament on Thursday afternoon, the Labour and Social Welfare Committee also attributed the airline’s precarious financial position to “mismanagement, corruption and negligence”. (Read: Kenya Airways reports Sh4.7bn loss due to huge costs)

The parliamentary committee, like the Industrial Court last Monday, says the 447 employees retrenched in September should be reinstated “with full benefits, unconditionally and without any victimisation”. (Read: KQ starts rehiring sacked staff)

“The Kenya Airways Board of directors and the government should immediately institute investigations into the mismanagement, corruption, negligence and alleged sexual harassments within the airline’s management and take requisite action to safeguard the interest of the shareholders and ensure investor confidence,” said the committee chaired by nominated MP Sophia Abdi Noor.

They also want the relationship between KQ and two offshore companies – Amboseli Ltd and Samburu Ltd – investigated “to safeguard the interest of shareholders an ensure investor confidence”.

Amboseli Ltd and Samburu Ltd are registered in the Cayman Islands and had at the end of September been used to acquire planes worth Sh5.3 billion.

This represents 6.85 per cent of Kenya Airways’ Sh77.43 billion assets.

Kenya Airways says the companies “have been incorporated by the airline’s lenders – Standard Chartered Bank and African Export Import Bank – as part of a financing arrangement in order to facilitate purchase of 10 new Embraer ERJ-190 aircraft from Embraer S.A., South America.”

“The two companies will be the transitory owners of the brand new aircraft currently being purchased by Kenya Airways until the loans are fully paid,” managing director Titus Naikuni said in a statement on November 13.

The committee states that “irregular outsourcing practices within the company have been a major avenue through which funds are lost and the two entities…were questionable.”

The committee’s investigations into the affairs of the national carrier started after 74 employees who are also members of the Aviation and Allied Workers Union petitioned Parliament to have them reinstated and KQ stopped from firing more workers.

Kenya Airways declared the employees redundant on the grounds that it was reducing an unsustainable wage bill.

But “the management was not candid”, the committee says.

“It recruited for some of the positions the retrenched workers had left and is still creating new senior management positions and recruiting to fill them,” says the committee, and “also went ahead to increase the salaries of its top management by 24 per cent”.

“The real challenges facing the airline include not just the wage bill but mainly downturn in passenger volumes…, an increasingly competitive environment, very high direct operating costs and other overheads which have continued to rise disproportionately to rise in revenues,” says the committee.

“It is worth noting that the airline under the same management has carried out several retrenchment exercises in the past but still finds itself in the sad state of affairs.”

The committee asks the Kenya Airways management to “stop victimising staff on the basis of gender and health status.”

“It should stop victimising Kenya Aviation and Allied Workers Union officials.”

Parliament has also asked for investigations into the Immigration ministry and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to establish whether work permits and crew certificates issued to foreigners were done within the law.

The committee has also directed the ministry and the aviation regulatory body to stop the issuance of permits to foreign workers for jobs where there are sufficient skills locally.

The committee said “Kenya Airways should have regard for its workers’ constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms relating to labour relations.”

“The airline should respect employees’ rights to fair labour practices in line with provision of Article 41 of the Kenya Constitution.”

It says most of the employees who were shown the door were sent text messages while on sick leave, maternity leave, in hospitals, or on duty out of their stations, which they deemed extremely cruel and barbaric.

“One employee had a premature birth as a result of emotional and psychological trauma while others developed complications despite having no recorded complications or conditions early on.”

The committee says the retrenchment was carried out in a hurry and even those who did not opt for voluntary early retirement were laid off and letters sent to them indicating they opted for retrenchment.

Before getting a court order temporarily stopping the retrenchment, the reports says, Kenya Airways sent text messages to employees saying they would undergo aptitude tests to identify those to leave.

“The company had begun the tests and had covered about five per cent of the entire workforce. When the court order was lifted, the company never concluded the testing and went ahead to hurriedly lay off even those who had not gone through the tests,” the reports states.

It says there was a deliberate objective to target women who had been on maternity leave in the last two years, those who were expectant and those who were unwell, including work related injuries and occupational health issues.

Others who were victimised included union officials, shop stewards as well as those who had actively participated in the 2009 strike.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Probe-K...z/-/index.html

I have always said KQ shareholding of to Kenyans is just on paper but in reality there r companies like Samburu ltd and Amboseli ltd in Cayman Island owning 6.8% but not acknowledge in shareholding structure! Let the game begin while fastjet is planning onslaught in African airspace!

[bantugbro]

fastjet confirms 1time Airline speculation



Tue 12:20 pm Fastjet is mulling over buying the 1time Airline from its parent company for a nominal fee, and then settling with 1time’s creditors. Fastjet is mulling over buying the 1time Airline from its parent company for a nominal fee, and then settling with 1time’s creditors.

Fastjet (LON:FAST), the new kid on the block on the African budget airline scene, is in talks to resuscitate 1time, the South African airline which ceased trading last month.

Speculation in the South African press prompted Fastjet to break cover and confirm it is currently in talks with the management, directors and provisional liquidator of 1time.

Fastjet is mulling over buying the 1time Airline from its parent company for a nominal fee, and then settling with 1time’s creditors.

Should the transaction go through, 1time would be rebranded into the Fastjet brand and sold through Fastjet.com.

Ed Winter, chief executive of Fastjet, said the company was hopeful of getting 1time flying again in time for the Christmas period, but conceded that the timescales are extremely challenging.

“Flights would initially be operated by a number of aircraft from the 1time fleet including McDonnell Douglas MD-82s, MD-83s and MD-87s, but restructuring plans would see a rapid re-fleeting with modern Airbus A319 aircraft,” Winter predicted.

Winter added that Fastjet hoped to keep many of the original 1time employees on the payroll.

Source:
http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/...on-51162.html#

[Mwana Pwani]

Any other African countires with their African aviation news?

[Dhuks]

Originally Posted by Mwana Pwani

Any other African countires with their African aviation news?

Why bother? Even if they have news of Angolan airline somebody here will see angle of comparing with Kenya airways

[Geza Ulole]

UK’s Fastjet steps into breach

December 10 2012 at 09:21am
By Audrey D'Angelo
Comment on this story

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

BUSINESS BOOMING: Mango airlines is filling the gap left by 1time, which is being liquidated. PICTURE: Matthew Jordaan
Related Stories
Two new low-cost airlines?
Cape Town - Well, it looks as if we shall have 1time back again, possibly in time for Christmas. That’s if an offer to buy it out of provisional liquidation is successful, and the return date for the liquidation to be made final – due at the beginning of next week – can be put back, making it possible to retain the airline’s licence.

London-based Fastjet, which aims to become a pan-African airline and was negotiating to buy 1time when it applied for a provisional licence, is now negotiating with the provisional liquidator, Aviwe Nyamura, and may acquire it more cheaply if it can reach agreement with its creditors. Even if this deal falls through, Fastjet is apparently not the only prospective purchaser.

We may have even more choice of airlines if 1time’s founders, who have applied for a licence to start a new one, go ahead with this plan in spite of the formidable new competition they will face.

Meanwhile Mango, the low-cost division of SAA, is filling a gap in the market made by the loss of 1time’s flights connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town with Port Elizabeth. Its first flight there arrived on Wednesday crammed with 186 passengers. Spokesman Hein Kaiser tells me bookings for other flights indicate that they will have passenger loads of more than 80 percent. Mango was, apparently, planning to fly the route in any case, but not until next year when it will take delivery of more aircraft. Until then, says Kaiser, it will have one return flight a day on the route.

Mango plans to fly to Zanzibar – a route pioneered by 1time, which offered package holidays there on its website, selling most if not all the accommodation on the island. Presumably, if 1time starts flying again in time for the Christmas holidays, bookings made in this way can be reinstated.

Mango chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout expects the airline to have a bumper holiday season and has adjusted its year-end traffic forecast by seven percent. He says there has been a marked increase in the number of airline passengers compared with the first three-quarters of the year. He expects Mango to carry more than 200 000 travellers between this month and mid-January, and expects fuel prices – which have been the downfall of several airlines in the past two years – to be relatively stable over this period.

Pointing out that soaring oil prices have hit motorists as well as airlines, he believes this is one of the reasons South Africans appear to be going on shorter holidays since 2008, with an average reduction of between two and four days. - Weekend Argus

http://www.iol.co.za/travel/travel-n...7#.UMWszORfB1w

[Geza Ulole]

New budget airlines aim for SA
Article By: Tina Weavind
Mon, 10 Dec 2012 7:17 AM

Two new low-cost airlines are planning to enter the South African market despite the brutal operating environment that grounded two companies - Velvet Sky and 1time - this year alone.

Fastjet, a subsidiary of London-based Lonrho, has been in talks to acquire 1time since last month, when the company went into provisional liquidation.

At the same time, the founders of 1time, who left the company more than a year before it failed, have applied for an operating licence to start a new company to be called Skywise.

While Skywise will offer local routes, Fastjet CEO Ed Winter said the company was aiming to increase the route networks from South Africa into the rest of Africa.

He said management was hoping that the deal would be concluded in time to get some routes flying by Christmas.

He said, however, that negotiations were ongoing and that the deal was still subject to board, parent company and regulatory approval.

Fastjet last month established a base for its west and east African operations in Tanzania.

Mr Winter declined to answer questions.

However, the acquisition appears unlikely. Even if Fastjet management makes a deal with 1time’s creditors, buying the company is likely to saddle it with significant debt.

Further, before the company brings in its own fuel-efficient A319 aircraft, it will spend several months operating 1time’s thirsty MD80s.

Buying 1time would not give Fastjet immediate access to an operational licence.

1time’s existing licence would need to be amended, a process that entails publishing the company’s intentions in the Government Gazette and obtaining official approval from the Department of Transport’s Air Service Licensing Council.

One industry insider, who asked not to be named, said it would seem more logical for Fastjet to team up with Skywise, as it would then be entering the market with an unencumbered new licence.

However, Glenn Orsmond, one of 1time’s founders seeking to launch Skywise, laughed off the suggestion.

He said their quest for a new operating licence was progressing well despite disgruntled former 1time employees who had approached the Department of Transport to register their objection to the application.

In a petition, the former staff members claimed "1time’s colossal debt was amassed while the airline was in the hands of the founders, all of whom conveniently saw fit to sell off their vested interest and part ways with the company".

They also said that not only were the founders "responsible for the lack of job security, they (were) also the catalyst for the events that led to the provisional liquidation of 1time".

Mr Orsmond said he had seen the former employees at the Department of Transport, but none of their objections had been considered by the council.

He said he left 1time after the company’s BEE deal was concluded and the founding members had lost shareholding and board control.

Mr Orsmond said he had made a presentation to the board about the strategy he believed the company should follow, but the board did not agree with him and wanted to follow a different path.

His resignation was done in agreement with the board, he said.

Mr Orsmond said he and his colleagues were "here to create jobs" and were "going to hire a lot of these guys".

1time’s demise has minimised the competition, and prices are said to have risen as a result.

Who backs airline

LONRHO, the London-listed company behind Fastjet, has been operating in Africa for over 100 years. Platinum miner Lonmin, which operated Marikana, was formerly its mining division.

The company operates in five industry sectors: infrastructure, agribusiness, hotels, IT support services and more recently in transport with its aim to be a pan-African low-cost carrier.

Fastjet is backed by Lonrho and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, a British entrepreneur of Greek Cypriot origin, who founded Europe-based low-cost carrier EasyJet.

Lonrho owned unprofitable airline Fly540, which operated several routes across west and east Africa. Fastjet has established a base in Tanzania, and the first flights under the new banner began last month.
http://travel.iafrica.com/flights/831938.html

[Geza Ulole]

Regulatory Story
Go to market news section
Company Fastjet PLC
TIDM FJET
Headline First week of operations and £2.5 million funding
Released 07:00 06-Dec-2012
Number 8622S07

RNS Number : 8622S
Fastjet PLC
06 December 2012



6 December 2012

fastjet plc
("fastjet" or the "Company")

fastjet reports on first week of operations and additional £2.5 million funding

fastjet, Africa's first low-cost airline, commenced commercial flight operations one week ago in Tanzania and is pleased to report that the airline carried 6,884 passengers with an average load factor of 85.4%. In addition, fastjet has sold 18,090 tickets to only two destinations with bookings now being taken as far out as March 2013.

All traffic to date has been on the initial Dar es Salaam to Mwanza and Kilimanjaro routes and as from tomorrow, fastjet will start adding additional flights to these two key launch destinations to service the demand for seats.

Commenting on the success of the first week of operations, fastjet Chief Executive Ed Winter said:

"A great deal of hard work has gone in from the fastjet team, Tanzanian Government, agents, contractors and suppliers to make this launch such a success. We are looking forward to having all 3 initial Airbus A319's fully operational over the coming weeks so that we can adequately cater for the expected holiday surge."

Issue of Equity to raise £2.5 million:

fastjet has outlined an aggressive growth strategy and has increased its working capital through a new successful fund raising with gross proceeds of £2,514,286 via a placing with an existing institutional investor and a draw down on its £5 million Equity Financing Facility ("EFF") with Darwin Strategic Limited ("Darwin"), a majority owned subsidiary of Henderson Global Investors Volantis Fund.

The Company has received a legally binding contract from the existing institutional investor to raise £2,000,000 by way of the issue of 66,666,667 new ordinary shares at a placing price of 3p per share. These shares will rank pari passu in all respects with existing ordinary shares of 1p each in fastjet. Once all the funds have been cleared, the placing will be completed and the Company will make an announcement of the issue of the Placing Shares and their date of admission to AIM which is expected by 11 December 2012.

In addition, and under the terms of the previously announced £5 million EFF agreement, the Company has raised an additional £514,286 by way of the issue of 14,285,714 shares of 1p each to Darwin (the "EFF Shares"). The new EFF Shares will be issued at a price of 3.6p per share and will also rank pari passu in all respects with existing ordinary shares of 1p each in fastjet.

An application will also be made to the London Stock Exchange for the 14,285,714 EFF Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that the admission will become effective and that trading in these new shares is expected by 11 December 2012.
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/e...entId=11420163

[Geza Ulole]

Kenya Airways deepens presence in Asia with pact

A Kenya Airways plane at the apron of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi. Monday’s deal brings to 18 the number of code- sharing agreements between KQ and international carriers. File

IN SUMMARY
The agreement will help KQ improve on already increasing passenger numbers in the Middle East, Far East, and Indian regions by exploiting the Bangkok route.
The KQ-CEA deal also comes on the back of a similar pact signed in the first week of November with Vietnam Airlines, the country’s national carrier.
Kenya Airways has deepened its presence in Asia with the signing of a flight deal with China Eastern Airlines (CEA), the second such agreement with the airline in the past one month.

The code-sharing agreement will see the two airlines market each other’s daily flights between Nairobi-Bangkok, Bangkok-Shanghai, Shanghai-Bangkok, and Bangkok-Nairobi.

The agreement will help KQ improve on already increasing passenger numbers in the Middle East, Far East, and Indian regions by exploiting the Bangkok route.

These high-yielding regions recorded a 16.5 per cent growth in passengers to 155,940 in the second quarter to September, an improvement the airline attributed to increased capacity and one it seems keen on solidifying.

“Kenya Airways seeks to strengthen its presence in China by offering better connection options to its passengers from Africa,” said KQ chief executive officer Titus Naikuni when announcing the deal with China’s second largest airline.

Code- sharing agreements allow airlines (marketing carrier) to sell seats on their aircraft as if they were their own and passengers later transferred onto a different aircraft (operating carrier) where the former lacks physical presence.

Operating carriers is such deals have actual presence in the change-over destination providing the aircraft, crew, and ground-handling support. Such agreements allow airlines to increase their footprint in new destinations without necessarily having more scheduled flights or aircraft.

They also allow passengers to conveniently make single flight bookings at the country of departure. “Our association with CEA gives us an opportunity to offer our customers a seamless connection to and from China,” said Mr Naikuni.

Monday’s deal brings to 18 the number of code sharing agreements between KQ and international carriers, having penned similar ones with Saudia Airlines and Korean Air early this year.

The KQ-CEA deal also comes on the back of a similar pact signed in the first week of November with Vietnam Airlines, the country’s national carrier.

The agreement has enabled passengers to travel via Bangkok on to Hanoi (Vietnam’s capital city) and Ho Chi Minh city and vice versa daily as the airline races to open up the South East Asian market.

KQ’s refocused efforts towards Asia come at a time when the airline has cut capacity on European routes — which account for about 22 per cent of its revenues — as the Euro crisis cuts earnings. The reduced capacity saw passenger numbers to the region drop to 89,852 for the second quarter to September compared to 108,835 in a similar quarter last year, a 17.4 per cent slump.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), traffic growth for Europe has remained flat since the beginning of this year in line with the economic pessimism on the continent.

However, KQ’s traffic to the Middle East and Asia jumped 16.5 per cent to 155,940 travellers as additional flights to New Delhi and Jeddah began to bear fruit.

The Asian market’s positive performance was, however, offset by lower traffic on European, Africa, and domestic routes forcing KQ’s passenger numbers to remain at just over one million for the period under review.

The Middle East and Asia account for 19 per cent of the carrier’s revenues, while Africa accounts for just over half of its sales (will be a quarter by the end of 2013-3014 financial year with the presence of Fastjet).

Last month, KQ shocked the market by posting a Sh4.8 billion half-year loss for the period ended September as its revenues fell by Sh5.1 billion to Sh49.8 billion.

This year, the airline raised Sh14.5 billion through a rights issue most of which will be used to implement a programme that includes increasing the airline’s fleet and the number of destinations from 59 to over 100.

pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/C...n/-/index.html

[èđđeůx]

I posted this in another thread like in June but it isn't like interior shots are constantly changed...


Arik Air Business Class images

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roniwei...n/photostream/

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roniwei...n/photostream/

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roniwei...n/photostream/

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roniwei...n/photostream/

[èđđeůx]

Arik A340

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darryl_...n/photostream/

[èđđeůx]

Arik Air extends route network to Kinshasa
http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/...rk-to-kinshasa

Arik Air, West and Central Africa’s largest commercial carrier, is expanding its regional African network with the addition of new flight services from Lagos, Nigeria to Kinshasa in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The flight, which will operate twice weekly, Wednesday and Sunday, means Kinshasa has now become Arik Air’s third destination in Central Africa, following the inclusion of flights to Luanda, Angola in 2011 and Douala, Cameroon in August this year.

The new Lagos-Kinshasa service will operate via Douala, Cameroon with outbound flights departing from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at 11:10 am (local time) and arriving at Douala International Airport at 12:40 pm (local time).

Flights will then continue onto Kinshasa, departing from Douala at 1:25 pm (local time) and arriving at N’djili International Airport, Kinshasa at 3:25 pm (local time).

The return flights will leave Kinshasa at 4:10 pm (local time), arriving in Douala at 6:10 pm (local time) and will thereafter leave Douala at 6:55 pm (local time), arriving in Lagos at 8:25 pm (local time). The Lagos to Kinshasa route will be served with a Boeing 737-700 Next Generation aircraft. The 737-700 is a two class compartment and the configuration is 12 Business Class seats and 112 Economy Class. Business Class passengers will enjoy a 44” seat pitch with cradle style seats, while Economy Class passengers will have plenty of room on the flight with a generous seat pitch of 34”.

[one-nation]

you made a little geographic mistake there, angola is not a central africa country. but a south west

[èđđeůx]

It wasn't me, it was the writer of the article.

[one-nation]

Originally Posted by èđđeůx

It wasn't me, it was the writer of the article.

ok then

[èđđeůx]

Originally Posted by one-nation

ok then

You expect me to apologize for sloppy journalism? Man get out of here with that nonsense, and find something more important to comment on.

[lady gaga]

lol

Nice photos for Arik Air love the brown/dark red livery