80 | http://www.nomadafricamag.com | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | Issue 11
proving safety of aircraft handling on the
ground,” Kenya Airways’ Ogendo says.
Anichini believes that more must be done
to bring Africa-based companies at the
forefront of global aircraft ground handling
safety initiatives.
“IATA working groups usually meet in Eu-
rope and North America. African profes-
sionals do not have an easy time obtaining
visas for the countries where meetings are
held, hence their apparent ‘non-participa-
tion’ in standard-setting groups like IGOM,”
he says. “Together with Richard Hunt, for-
merly at South African Airways, we man-
aged to convince the IGOM group to meet
in South Africa in February of 2017. With-
out including Africa in the mix, as a conti-
nent, African aviation leaders will not
become the chairs and vice-chairs of stan-
dard setting groups, maintaining the reign-
ing hand well placed in the hands of the
non-African counterparts. This must stop
and I encourage African aviation profes-
sionals to get involved and participate. I in-
vite African aviation leaders to
demonstrate their transformational leader-
ship.”
The Role of International Players
International aircraft ground handling com -
panies are investing in Africa and this is
making the industry develop.
Systems, knowledge and management
competence are their main contributions,
according to Twiga Aero’s Anichini.
“International ground handling companies
are developing in Africa and increasing their
presence, though, at a slow pace. The com -
panies bring with them better resources in
terms of GSE and senior-level expertise
and better trained staff in ground handling
matters,” notes Ogendo of Kenya Airways.
“The main challenge with the international
ground handling companies is that they
seldom invest in new equipment for the
stations they operate in Africa, but rather
redeploy used equipment from other sta-
tions into Africa destinations. Their interna-
tional network, though, accords them
better technical support for their GSE in
terms of spare parts requisition and tech-
nical advice.
“One other challenge with these interna-
tional GHAs in Africa is their remuneration
policy,” continues Ogendo. “All is not doom
and gloom. We at Kenya Airways are de-
termined to become a power house in
ground handling and be the premier GHA
in the region. We have worked hard to at-
tain our current position and have mapped
out areas of improvement as we seek to
win in Africa.”