The 81st Chair of the International Air Transport Association Board of Governors and Chief Executive Officer of RwandAir, Yvonne Manzi Makolo, speaks on various air transport industry issues at the just-concluded Annual General Meeting held in Istanbul, Turkey. OYETUNJI ABIOYE was there. Excerpts:
How do you see your new appointment as the 81st Chair of the IATA Board of Governors?
It is about supporting IATA initiatives on sustainability, safety, retailing and all the key points IATA is focusing on. For me, it is a good start but this will be a normal thing. It should be the norm and not an exception. In the next few years, I am hoping to see a lot more females taking on leadership roles and new challenges. This will bring more equity within the aviation industry, not only in terms of diversity but a big focus on African aviation as well as on the international stage; and not from the viewpoint of “African airlines are not safe, African airlines are not profitable” and all the negatives. I really want to see African aviation in a more positive light by showing and working together with other airlines with quality within aviation in Africa and connecting the continent even better than we have right now. As you know the share of the global traffic for African aviation is less than three per cent, which is not acceptable, we would want to see that growing.
What can you say are the positives for African aviation?
The positives are that we have a very vast continent and are doing aviation business in the face of a lot of challenges. As you know, the cost of operating is very high; skilled labour is a challenge, infrastructure is a challenge, and the issues of Open Skies are there. Despite that, we are trying our best to connect this vast continent. We have a very young population amid the issue of getting adequate skilled labour. We can resolve that by training our young population and having a lot of them come into the sector. The fact is that there is so much potential in terms of growth given all the gaps that we have. The African continent is the next frontier of aviation, partnering within ourselves in the continent and with other players.
How can we bring more women into the aviation sector?
The industry recognises that there is a challenge of not having enough women in the sector. A lot more needs to be done in a very deliberate way. Airlines need to be deliberate in bringing women on board, creating a more suitable environment, especially for women in more technical field and in leadership. This will help them to go up the ladder in the industry. I am glad that this has happened and to me. I am hoping that this will inspire a lot of airlines to consider giving women the opportunity to grow. This is important especially when they are recruiting and promoting people within the organisation.
What would you say about air connectivity issues in Africa, especially with the Single African Air Transport Market initiative which has recorded very slow implementation and restrictions by some African countries?
The Single African Air Transport Market is a no-brainer when you say you want to grow aviation within the continent. There is no way that can happen with restrictions in the BASAs like the type of aircraft you are going to use, whether they will give you Fifth Freedom or not, and the frequencies that you are going to operate. That just won’t work. We have been talking about SAATM for a very long time. Since the time I joined the industry, that has been the number one topic. What I am happy about is the fact that the decision has been made to start with pilot countries-the ones that are ready because right now, we have about 35 countries that are signatories. Even the ones that have signed up for it are not necessarily implementing it. The ones who are ready to actually implement can start and hopefully, when other countries see the benefits, they can come on board. But beyond SAATM, we also can’t talk about Open Skies and closed borders. We need to look at the visa regime in the continent and what makes it so difficult for people to move within the continent; that goes hand in hand. I am hoping that on the pilot phase, we would see some tangible results and a lot more countries would be willing to open up and move away from a protectionism mindset.
Is RwandAir still planning to begin flights to Paris?
It is still on. That will happen this year. We are also looking at increasing our frequencies to London to a daily flight. Currently, we fly four times a week and for the winter season, we are looking at a daily London flight. The focus will be really to connect and open up a lot more African routes including Maputo, Luanda, Mombasa and a few others.
Are you worried about the high government charges imposed on air transport in Africa?
Yes, I do. I think that the real message is that aviation is not a luxury. I think that a lot of African markets think that flying is a luxury. It is a necessity because given how vast our continent is, it is really important to find a very convenient way to navigate Africa. Taxing aviation highly makes it a luxury; instead of the enabler that it should be for families to connect and businesses to be transacted across the continent. We really need to look at what we are doing in terms of charges because if you look at your ticket price, more than half of it is taxes or fees. If we can reduce that and make flying cheaper, then we can grow the pie and have a lot more people flying. And the government benefits from that as well as we move volumes instead of restricting the pie to a small group of people that can afford it. The pie will just remain that small.
Is the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel desirable within the continent?
In terms of jet fuel within the continent, we are already paying a high premium of about four times what the airlines in Europe and the Middle East are paying for fuel; this already puts us at a disadvantage. That is another reason ticket prices are so high; it is because of the cost of jet fuel. We recognise the importance of SAF even as an African airline. We are already operating at a disadvantage with such a high cost of aviation fuel. As Willie Walsh has said, the government needs to incentivise aviation fuel producers. Even in Africa, we have the raw material for it. Are people willing to invest to produce it? And if they produce it, will they produce enough of it? If they produce enough of it, will we be able to afford it? If not, our ticket prices will shoot up. It is a very tricky lemon that we have on our hands right now.
What is RwandAir’s strategy for the Nigerian route which is a huge market?
The Nigerian market is a key market for us at RwandAir. It is our biggest market aside from Rwanda and it is growing. The biggest challenge we have now with Nigeria is repatriating our revenue. We have a lot of monies in the country.
How much of your money is trapped in Nigeria?
I won’t disclose the figure. Let us just say that it is significant and for a medium-sized airline like ours, that really puts a strain on our operations. That also constrains what we can do within the market because ideally, we should be flying not only daily but double daily. However, we are not able to do that because we don’t know when we will get our money out. So, we had to shrink a bit of our operations to Lagos and Abuja. But we hope that once this issue is resolved, we will really go out to capture that market because it is a strong market. We are looking up at growing our presence further there, and the same thing within the African countries. The potential is huge. There are still markets that are not served well. We are looking forward to filling those gaps and now even with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); the growth potential is even more. We are really focused on really connecting Rwanda to the rest of African countries and beyond the African continent.
RwandAir is planning a deal with Qatar Airways. What is the update on this?
In terms of cargo, we did get our dedicated freighter at the end of last year. We recently launched the Kigali hub with Qatar Airways Cargo. They bring Boeing 777 freighter three times a week to Kigali and we do the shipment within African countries. So far, it has been going on very well. We are looking at expanding to more markets within the African continent. Our own dedicated freighter is also doing well while we are operating it three times a week to UAE Sharjah and within the African continent. In terms of our fleet going forward, we are still finalising doubling our fleet within the next five years; adding additional B737, and additional narrow bodies so that we can connect the African continent very well.
Will you drop the Bombardier CRJ planes?
Exiting the CRJ is for sure, we have been exiting. And for the Q4s, we are still evaluating that. We have domestic airports in Rwanda which have very short runways. We are still looking at what aircraft can replace that. In terms of the Qatar deal, it has been going on for a while. Why we had delays was because of COVID-19 and Qatar hosting the World Cup. But now, it is back on track and we are hoping again that in the next few months, we will do that. Even without that, we are still working together with an excellent code-share cargo element.
