Four flights scheduled to Munich and three to London
AFRICAN STAR Airways, South Africa's first majority black-owned airline, has been granted its licence to start flights from Johannesburg to London and Munich.
The airline plans a daily service, with four direct flights to the German destination, and three to London's Stansted airport each week.
No initial date has been set at this stage for the inaugural flights, but according to the airline's chairman, Gabriel Mokgoko, they are hoping to begin flying at the end of next month.
We have our licence from the department of transport, and we are ready to go, says Mokgoko. African Star is an airline with a strong development and rebuilding mission. Indeed, we see it as a dramatic expression of the African Renaissance.
The airline is owned by a consortium which includes South African and regional black entrepreneurs. It has bought two Boeing 747-300s from Singapore Airlines, which are expected to be delivered in early May. The carrier has also bought a medium-range Airbus 31-300 twin-engine aircraft to serve developing domestic and regional feeder routes in Africa.
Mokgoko says that African Star hopes eventually to offer direct flights out of Cape Town to Europe in addition to its flights out of Johannesburg. Servicing and maintenance in Europe will be carried out by Germany's Lufthansa and in South Africa by Denel Aviation.
South African Airways
is the primary competitor African Star faces, but did not contest its application for a licence.
By Leonard Neill
