This archive report was first published on 11 July 2020.
African Airlines Resume Flights Amid COVID-19 Pandemic ¶
Published on July 11, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic slowly recedes, African airlines are preparing to take to the skies once more. However, the road to recovery will be challenging, with many airlines facing significant losses and a difficult path ahead to stay competitive.
According to South African aviation expert Phuthego Mojapelo, most African airlines have started operations, with two of South Africa's low-cost airlines, FlySafair and Mango Airlines, already resuming flights. Both airlines are affiliated with the national airline South African Airways (SAA), which filed for bankruptcy in December 2019.
"SAA is developing a plan of starting a new airline, SAA 2.0," explains Mojapelo. "That plan is still before the unions and creditors and they still have to vote on the plan."
The failure of SAA leaves a significant gap, as it was one of Africa's largest airlines, along with Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways. Kenya Airways has also experienced significant losses and is currently going through the process of being nationalized.
"That would have been our income if we were able to fly at full capacity," Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, told DW. According to the International Civil Aviation Association (ICAO), African airlines are at risk of losing $6 billion in revenue compared to 2019 and three million jobs.
However, long-haul flights are on the cards again, with Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways planning to fly to Paris, Geneva, and Brussels this month, albeit on a reduced schedule.
Passengers are at low risk of infection, according to Mojapelo, as most African aircraft are fitted with HEPA filters, which make sure the virus does not survive in the airplane. Passengers also have their body temperature measured in South African airports, and rows on the aircraft are allowed to be fully occupied.
German aviation expert Cord Schellenberg believes the environment inside an aircraft poses very little danger to passengers. "Worldwide, airlines will be ensuring that people are maintaining distance on the ground during check-in, at the gate, and at the baggage counter," he told DW.
Wearing masks on board also helps to stop the spread of the virus, as well as removing and replacing the air conditioning systems that allow air to flow in from the cabin ceiling.
Airlines are operating on the assumption that it will take some time for the economy to return to pre-pandemic levels, which could have an impact on ticket prices. So far, prices have remained the same on the domestic market, explains Mojapelo.
"Africa is a magnet for tourists, and the airlines will continue to position themselves for this business," Mojapelo said. "The continent is also a popular destination for conferences, so the industry will recover when the pandemic wanes."
However, his colleague Joachim Vermoorten is more skeptical about the overall impact of the coronavirus crisis, which has hit South Africa particularly hard. "The market has certainly not returned to normality," he told DW. "For that to happen, all air travel restrictions would have to be removed, and air travel should be freely accessible for bookings, including leisure travelers."
According to Schellenberg, the price of an airline ticket is an important tool that can attract travelers. He expected private travelers will be offered cheaper prices to increase the demand for a trip to Africa. In contrast, he believes that business travelers will have to dig deeper into their pockets if the market picks up again in the future.
