Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines expand codeshare services to Africa

Wider choice of flights to African destinations for customers of both airlines

Lufthansa customers can now book codeshare flights with Brussels Airlines to four more destinations in Africa. For the first time, passengers can thus fly with the Belgian carrier from Berlin-Tegel, Hamburg, Hanover, Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart through Brussels direct to the African capitals Conakry (Guinea), Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Kigali (Rwanda). Furthermore, Lufthansa can now offer its passengers two codeshare flights with Brussels Airlines to the Angolan capital Luanda in addition to its own twice-weekly service from Frankfurt. Frequencies to Angola are thus being doubled from two to four per week. Members of Lufthansa’s frequent flyer programme Miles & More can earn miles on all flights operated by Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines or redeem miles for award flights.

As part of the extended cooperation between the two carriers, Brussels Airlines, which belongs to the Lufthansa Group, will also issue its own tickets to passengers on Lufthansa flights from Frankfurt to Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt (Nigeria), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) and also to Luanda.

Since July 2009, an increasing number of long-haul flights to Africa operated by Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines have also been offered under the partner airline’s flight number. The new codeshare services operated by Brussels Airlines give Lufthansa passengers a choice of three further destinations, which the German carrier does not serve itself. Lufthansa currently operates its own flights to 17 destinations in Africa. If one counts the services operated by the Lufthansa Group airlines Austrian, Brussels Airlines, SWISS and bmi, passengers now have a choice of 31 destinations in 27 countries in Africa. In addition, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines offer all their flights on cross-border routes between Germany and Belgium as well as on selected European routes as codeshare services.

 

Source: Air Transport News

AirAsia and Jetstar ink wide-ranging cooperation agreement

Low-cost carriers Jetstar and AirAsia have formed a new alliance that will allow them to study the joint purchase of new aircraft, cooperate in ground and passenger handling services, and take on each other's passengers when there is a disruption.

The agreement will reduce costs and pool their expertise, and result in lower fares for customers throughout the Asia Pacific, say the carriers. This is the first time two major low-cost carriers are cooperating on such a large scale, they add.

Jetstar, a subsidiary of Australian flag carrier Qantas, and Malaysia-based AirAsia are the two largest low-cost carriers in the Asia Pacific. The deal will give them "a natural advantage in one of the world's most competitive aviation markets," say the carriers.

For future fleet specifications, the carriers will investigate opportunities for joint procurement of the next generation of narrow body aircraft. "A collective goal is to achieve cost reductions in terms of order volume and influencing design specification to deliver more efficient, low cost operations," they say.

They will also develop agreements to cooperate on the provision of passenger and ground handling in Australia and within Asia at overlapping airports, and will pool inventory for aircraft components and spare parts. They will jointly procure engineering and maintenance supplies and services, with Jetstar saying that it will maintain its existing use of and commitment to Australian facilities.

Finally, there will be reciprocal arrangements for passenger management. This will allow them to support passenger disruptions and recovery onto the other airline's service across both of their networks.

"The aviation market in Asia is a growth market and has proven resilient over the past 12 months despite the tough operating environment, with significant growth in passenger numbers forecast in the region. This partnership will ensure that both airlines can capitalise on these growth opportunities," says Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.

AirAsia's CEO Tony Fernandes says that the agreement is another step in his carrier's strategy to "maintain its position as the lowest-cost airline in the world despite rising costs associated with the fledgling global economic recovery".

AirAsia is Asia's largest low-cost carrier with associates in Thailand and Indonesia. It also has a long-haul associate, AirAsia X, which flies to Perth, Melbourne and the Gold Coast in Australia. Jetstar flies to regional and long haul destinations out of Australia, and has associate carriers in Singapore and Vietnam.

Source: Flight International

The Association of African Airlines (AFRAA) AGA held in Maputo

On 23rd and 24th November the 41st AFRAA AGA was held at Maputo, Mozambique, with the participation of more than 20 airline CEO’s. The theme of this year AGA was: “Succeeding in Challenging times”. In his keynote address the President of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza, put the emphasis on the fact that crisis is not something that the air transport industry should be afraid of or draw back from but on the contrary, a crisis can become an opportunitiy to challenge ourselves. He also added that air transport was, has been and is a catalyst of economic growth.

Mr Geoffrey Moshabesha, ICAO Regional Director, stated that the focus of the organization is on safety, security and economic liberalization. IATA RVP, Lance Brogden, added that all parties need to work together.

Christian Folly-Kossi in his last report as Secretary General of AFRAA made an overview of his contribution to the African air transport industry. His report began with a description of the state of the industry and a statement that the African airline industry has been adversely affected by the global recession although the effect has been more limited than elsewhere. He continued by adding that from 2003 total passenger numbers to and from Africa were steadily rising until 2007 but in 2008, there was a marginal drop of about 4% in passenger numbers as a result of the world economic recession. On the financial side African airlines are expected to lose around 300 USD for 2008, which is mainly due to the high fuel costs. For 2009 the estimate loss is 0.5 billion USD. In 2009 two airlines became members of AFRAA, Rwanda Air and Zambezi Airlines.

 

Source: Air Transport News