Middle Eastern airlines are committed to assisting their African counterparts to stimulate the market, create capacity and grow cargo volumes. According to Fatih Cigal, Turkish Cargo’s senior vice president for marketing, the Middle East has a vested interest in Africa’s success, which is why it’s imperative that they assist in addressing some of the big challenges the continent faces. “Of utmost importance is the need to liberalise African air space,” he said. “This will immediately increase competition in the air sector which will ultimately lead to better services, more frequencies, more volumes and better cargo rates.” This in turn would allow African carriers to expand their operations and invest in more freighter fleets in particular. “The aviation business on the continent is performing at lower levels than what would be expected,” he said. Airlines were not investing enough in their fleets while they had large geographical areas to service, placing them under pressure to offer reliable and consistent service. “In 2018 all African carriers invested in only 23 aircraft in comparison to Middle Eastern carriers who invested in 106. Africa is much bigger than the Middle East yet the aviation business is performing at a much lower level.” He said Africa needed to increase its investments in its fleets, but understandably this was an expensive undertaking. “That is why one has to first build up the market,” explained Cigal. “There has to be capacity from the airlines and then also the necessary connectivity.” According to Cigal foreign carriers, particularly those in the Middle East such as Turkish Airlines, could play an important role in assisting African airlines, offering advice and mentorship as well as partnerships to grow air cargo across both Africa and the Middle East. “We have initiated talks with several local carriers in this regard,” he said. “Inactive capacity on many African routes remains the big challenge. Limited capacity raises rates and that results in producers opting for modes other than air and then struggling to reach their markets on time. We see an opportunity for this to be solved with agreements not only between local carriers, but also with us as a foreign carrier. This makes Istanbul a gateway hub in connecting Africa – not just with the Middle East, but with the rest of the world.” He said by stimulating the market and creating capacity African airlines would see airfreight volumes grow even more.
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The Middle East has a vested interest in Africa’s success. – Fatih Cigal