Originally Posted by
leroy11
I agree with you about Africa. Who would be the best candidate for African coverage? Ethiopian? .
ET have made it very clear that they are aiming at *A membership - they have existing relationships with BD SN LH and SA. I believe that they just signed a codeshare arrangement with TK though I am not sure when it comes into effect , and according to the following link they are negotiating codeshares with TG SQ UA and MS
http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/200...tar-entry.html
this would seem to make them a pretty unlikely candidate for OW , especially as they have not a single codeshare or FF relationship with any OW carrier .
Originally Posted by
leroy11
be honest, Star Alliance is not strong in Africa either. Admittedly, they have Egypt Air and SAA .
although I concede that *A could do with a more central hub in Africa I note from the following wiki link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...orts_in_Africa.
that the 3 busiest airports in Africa by pax volume are JNB , CAI and CPT all strong bases for *A , furthermore if they tie up ET as well they will also have a hub at the number 7 airport ADD.
I concede that Africa is not a big player internationally in total traffic , but , package holiday routes aside , the yields should tend to be pretty good as many markets remain tightly regulated .
Back to who OW should pursue in Africa .
I personally think the most logical choice is Arik Air , however , I think it will be a few years before they are ready for an global alliance , but LOS is a good location geographically and with a reasonable amount of high yielding traffic , the downside of course is that there is no guarantee that the next time Nigeria changes government that they wont decided to favour another carrier and shun Arik Air .
If you look at the rest of the top 10 airports they are either - holiday destinations such as Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheik , or tied up to Star - CAI , JNB , CPT and probably ADD , or natural candidates for Skyteam ie NBO already in Skyteam and Casablanca and Algiers with strong cultural ties to France , and , if I am not mistaken existing ties to AF for their respective carriers .
On the plus side for OW in Africa I believe that BA actually extended their franchise agreement with Comair until somewhere around 2018 , a welcome exception to their practice in recent years of shedding franchisees.