American Airlines is once again thinking of serving Africa. Contrary to what had been announced before the pandemic (the opening of a Philadelphia Casablanca line), this time the company has listed destinations, whether business or tourist destinations.
"In an employee meeting last week, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, Znotins offered,
For Africa, as you know, big growing continent, a lot of different cultures and tourist type destinations, business destinations…We do have some African destinations that are in the list of things that we look at and we keep an eye on so I' m hopeful we get to the continent in the near future, but it always is shifting and changing.
https://viewfromthewing.com/american-ai ... to-africa/
He is sure of one thing Oneworld must catch up in Africa compared to Star Alliance and SkyTeam.
The expansion of Qatar Airways in Africa, the arrival of Royal Air Maroc in Oneworld and the (big) partnership to come between Qatar Airways and RwandAir (pending the semi-privatization of RwandAir**) has enabled Oneworld "to return" to Africa after British Airways closed many routes (Entebbe, Dar Es Salaam, Monrovia, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Freetown,..) as well as Iberia (Lagos, Malabo, Johanensburg, Luanda).
** The release of Rwandan political prisoners last week from a request of the USA via Qatari mediation will probably move things
Potential destinations in Africa (in my opinion)
North Africa
Cairo: this is not a Oneworld hub, but in the past non-Star Alliance airlines have landed in Cairo. I remember Delta Airlines which I think had closed its line shortly after September 11, 2001. Before reopening it for a short time between 2009 and 2011 (closed due to the Arab Spring
https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... cairo+2009). Egypt remains a very big market for the USA
Casablanca: the only Oneworld hub in Africa since the bankruptcy of Comair in South Africa. AA therefore had to open its PHL CMN line before the covid, but the pandemic canceled everything. Royal Air Maroc has a very good network in West and Central Africa. Some of the routes departing from CMN on Africa are already in code share with AA. RAM serves major American Airlines hubs in the western United States (Miami, Boston, JFK). There's Washington, but it's not an AA hub. The A321XLR counld fly on PHL CMN route
West Africa
Accra, Dakar and Lagos: a very good service from the United States with United Airlines and Delta Airlines (only DL for Dakar, but there is also Senegal Airlines on DKR JFK). American Airlines would also like to have its piece of the cake. But from Dallas? Miami? New York ? Philadelphia? The A321XLR will be too short for Lagos and Accra so probably the 787-8 and for Dakar why not the A321XLR.
I am thinking of Cape Verde. Very large Diaspora in Boston (finally in Massachusetts, 70,040 live there
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Verdean_Americans). TACV served the USA from Sal and then Praia (when Praia airport was expanded to receive 757s). Delta Airlines had planned to serve Sal in 2009 in addition to Luanda (Angola) and Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), but reservations had been closed a few weeks before the first flight.
https://www.travelagentcentral.com/tran ... -expansion
We can also think of Banjul (Gambia) served in the 2000s by North American Airlines in B767-300ER (
https://mshale.com/2006/06/01/north-ame ... ly-to-west -africa/) or Monrovia also served in the past by North American Airlines and Delta. DL had left Liberia due to the Ebola outbreak (
https://saharareporters.com/2014/07/10/ ... ia-flights) and Sierra Leone had tried to lure DL into 2013 (
http://www.theafricanaviationtribune.co ... tches.html)
Southern Africa
Cape Town, Johannesburg: with the difficulties of South African Airways and the closure of long-haul routes to the United States. Delta Airlines and United Airlines took the opportunity to recover a significant share of point-to-point traffic between South Africa and the United States. Partnerships with local South African airlines allow US airlines to also offer connections to Southern and East Africa with Airlink
East Africa
Kigali (Rwanda): surprising because it is not the biggest US market compared to the destinations mentioned above. That said, the USA was the 1st market outside Africa for Rwanda in 2019 with 40,000 visitors per year. A share of tourists with high revenues and also business traffic for conferences (
https://www.c9hotelworks.com/wp-content ... review.pdf ) (good for classes at the front of the plane). Rwanda being one of the countries in Africa that hosts the most conferences.
Point-to-point traffic will only fill a 787-8, however the RwandAir hub would allow American Airlines to connect via Kigali to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Cameroon and l South Africa or India (if the connecting times are good) to name the big markets. RwandAir being a close partner of Qatar Airways which is campaigning for a merger with Oneworld. RwandAir having code share on all Qatar Airways US routes (
https://www.doha-airport.com/departures ... ndair?tp=0). Rwanda having also been certified FAA cat 1 this year and RwandAir no longer plans to go to the USA via Accra.
SkyTeam with Kenya Airways and Star Alliance with Ethiopian have non-stop flights between the USA and East Africa
AA visibly interline with RwandAir. On Facebook, people are posting flights from JFK Doha with American Airlines before going to Kigali with RwandAir. No worries public profile and he's a well-known person in the tourism world
https://www.theexpeditionist.com/about
Rwanda Aviation News (Drones, Air Force, Civil Aviation, Space, Air Balloon): https://www.facebook.com/RwandAn-Flyer-153177931456873
!! https://www.zawya.com/en/economy/africa ... n-cnfdm145
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