64 | http://www.nomadafricamag.com | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | Issue 11
The performance of the airline industry,
particularly from an international perspective,
reflects the performance of the tourism industry, one of the
South African Government’s six imperatives for growth.”- Chris Zweigenthal, CEO, Airlines Association of Southern Africa.
A long line of African airlines were mis-
managed or given insufficient funding by
their respective governments and many
were forced into liquidation. Other airlines
formed partnerships in order to gain
global access to networks and began to
offer frequent flyer programmes, slowly
gaining recognition and success in a very
volatile industry. Examples of global airline
networks include SAA, a member of Star
Alliance since 2006; Kenya Airways, a
member of SkyTeam since 2007 and
Ethiopian Airlines, a member of Star Al-
liance since 2011.
Kenya Airways was established in 1977
after the East African Community was dis-
solved and East-African Airways was dis-
banded. By 1997, Kenya Airways took de-
livery of the first new Boeing 737-300
aircraft for the purpose of domestic and
African regional travel. In 2006, Kenya Air-
ways had won the ‘African Airline of the
Year’ Award for the fifth time in seven
years and in 2011 the airline had carried 3
million passengers. The airline is currently
focused on expanding the fleet to 107 air-
planes and increasing its destinations to
115 by 2021.
Ethiopian Airlines has become one of the
continent’s leading carriers that is both
profitable and boasts a network including
Africa, Europe, North and South America,Middle East and Asia. Its "Vision 2025"
growth strategy is to become the leading
aviation group in Africa, and the airline has
received multiple awards. In 2016,
Ethiopian was the first airline in the world
to fly the Airbus A350XWB aircraft in
Africa and the first African airline to pur-
chase these new aircraft.
In South Africa, Union Airways Ltd was the
first civil airmail service, pioneering com -
mercial aviation in South Africa and lead-
ing to the formation of South African
Airways (SAA) in 1934. In 1952, Johannes-
burg opened Jan Smuts International Air-
port (now OR Tambo International). By
the 60s, SAA had already carried moreSouth African Airline SAA currently own approximately 50
aircraft, Egypt Air own 54, Royal Air Maroc own 57 and Ethiopian
Airlines operate a fleet of 94 aircraft. Ethiopian is also one of only
four airlines in Africa with over 5 million annual passengers. To
cope with the increasing demand, some 20 000 new pilots,
engineers and technicians will be needed and more than 1 000
new aircraft will be required across the African fleet.