The Allplane Podcast #16 - African Aviation Overview, with Tendi Mutandagayi

Tendi Mutandagayi.jpg

Africa is a huge continent that not always gets the media attention it deserves.

In many ways, its aviation sector reflects the issues that have traditionally affected large swathes of the continent, such as political fragmentation and financial instability, and, yet, quite a few interesting developments have been taking place lately…

While some of Africa’s main players such as South African Airways and Air Mauritius have been struggling and, at the time of writing these lines is not yet clear whether they will return to the skies, Ethiopian Airlines is emerging as one of the world’s super-connectors and other African governments are investing in new national carriers.

From its hub in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian is building an airline empire of sorts by acquiring and setting up airlines all over the continents. Could this become the first truly successful pan-African airline group, well ahead of the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market?

But there is a lot more going on in African aviation at the moment…

What perspectives are there in Africa for low cost airlines? How has the growing Chinese presence in the African economy affected route networks? Which are the favourite distribution channels for airlines in Africa?

We are going to answer to these and other questions on this episode of the podcast with Tendi Mutandagayi, a consultant based in Johannesburg with many years of experience working in aviation projects involving companies such as Ethiopian, Sabre and Terrapin and with whom I happen to collaborate professionally in a number of professional projects.

Tendi knows the African aviation industry inside out and he is going to offer us a glimpse of its main trends and developments in today’s episode of the podcast.


Download this episode from:

Apple Podcasts / iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher


Things we talk about in this episode

  • Structure of the African aviation industry

  • South African Airways’ demise

  • The emergence of Ethiopian Airlines as a major market players

  • Other national airlines in Africa: Kenya Airways, Air Senegal Air Mauritius…

  • Low cost airlines in Africa: where is the African Ryanair?

  • Intercontinental connections (I): the shift to Asia

  • Intercontinental connections (II): new routes to America

  • Favourite distribution channels for airlines in Africa


Podcast Music: Five Armies by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3762-five-armies
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


Interview Transcript (coming soon!)

(please note that, although we strive to make it as close as possible to the original recording, the transcript may not be 100% accurate)


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