Southern premieres
Africa’s Iata members put in a better monthly performance than their South American and Caribbean colleagues for the first time recently. In other news, a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer is preparing to offer the industry more options.
At the end of August Iata called on African governments to harmonise their adoption of Icao’s take-off guidelines for safe and secure operations during the Covid-19 outbreak. Muhammad Albakri, vice-president of Iata’s Africa and Middle East region, said that the secure reconstitution of the continent’s aviation connectivity is of crucial importance for the economic recovery of the continent’s economies.
Cart and SAATM the instruments
So far, however, only two African states, namely Kenya and Rwanda, have oriented their action 100% to the recommendations of the Icao council’s ‘aviation recovery task force’ (Cart), whilst Ghana and Togo have implemented more than 90% and Gambia approximately 81% thereof. Those 34 countries that are striving for the creation of the unified African air transport market SAATM, have proved to be similarly tentative, for only ten of them have completely implemented the concrete measures so far. Albakri pointed out that “SAATM is a ready-made mechanism for Africa, through which it can fortify its economic recovery. The recovery will be much slower if the continent has to depend on other hubs outside of its home region in order to re-establish the continent’s connectivity.”
Africa’s Iata members nevertheless did better in July for the third time in succession than any other region of the global aviation body in terms of cargo volumes, as its international freight performance only declined by 3% vis-à-vis the same month last year (+3.8% in June). Airlines from Latin America propped up the table with a 32.1% decline (–28.6% in June). This is the first time since Iata started analysing monthly developments in 1990 that this market was smaller than the African one.
Between insolvency and innovation
The insolvencies that pushed many a large Latin American provider, including Latam, Avianca and Aeromexico, into Chapter 11 creditor protection in the USA didn’t have a direct consequences for their freight activities.
The ongoing downturn has triggered a degree of innovation in South America, however, for example with Embraer. The Brazilian firm, which doesn’t produce full-freighters in its plants, has revamped the cabin configuration of its short and medium-haul jets. In addition to its belly-hold capacities it now offers either a certified seat-loading option (3 t on 96 seats in the E190; 3.75 t on 118 seats in the E195) or floor-mounted loading, if 70% of the seats are removed.
