The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has rolled out an interactive capacity-sharing portal for African airlines. The portal designed to ease the efforts of the industry restart helps in faster recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Built as a result of the strategic partnership between AFRAA and ACC Aviation Group, it is bound to provide airlines access to market-leading services to support the development of Africa’s aviation industry. During the launch, a capacity-building virtual workshop was held on August 12, 2020 to demonstrate the functionality of the tool to airlines.
Cooperation between AFRAA airlines is vital for air transport industry sustainability. The portal, operated by ACC Aviation Group, offers a forum for airlines to share capacity and increases regular aircraft utilization. At the same time, operators hold the opportunity to make offers of their aircraft availability and keep a check of the list of offered airplanes for ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, and Insurance), layover aircraft use, and dry lease sale. On the other side, users can place requests for ACMI, passenger charter, cargo charter, and consultancy services. As airlines restructure their business models, fleet, and network, AFRAA and ACC also use advisory services for restructuring through the platform to assist with short and medium-term plans.
The recovery plan by AFRAA designed in April 2020 encompasses actions to navigate through COVID-19 and is enriched on 9-pillars. The list includes governments, service providers, regulators, maintenance, customers cost management, workforce, cargo operations, ensuring business continuity. The portal undertakes actions under pillars on business continuity, cost management, and cargo operations.
AFRAA’s Secretary-General, Mr. Abderahmane Berthe, stated: “This platform is a tool to enhance cooperation among AFRAA members with the view to ensuring that African operators provide solutions to African challenges with win-win benefits for all operators involved in aircraft capacity sharing, during and well beyond the COVID-19. Currently, layover aircraft at certain airports provide strong opportunities for airlines to serve new routes without investing in additional airplanes.”
Airlines were encouraged to register and start using the platform to take advantage of the opportunities for operations to enhance. A second edition of the capacity building workshop will take place later in August 2020 for potential customers comprising: service providers, civil aviation authorities, logistics companies, and other supply chain stakeholders.
