Given the success it has seen at its West African hub in Accra, Ghana, South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) is seeking to expand its 5th Freedom business model to include more destinations across Africa.
The Star Alliance carrier began operations out of the Ghanaian capital to each of Abidjan and Washington Dulles in August 2015 by virtue of the country's liberal policy of awarding foreign carriers 5th Freedom traffic rights. Similar rights have since been secured from the Gabonese and Cameroonian governments paving the way for the launch of a 3x weekly Johannesburg O.R. Tambo-Libreville Leon M'Ba-Douala-Libreville-Johannesburg service.
As such, the carrier's acting General Manager (Commercial), Aaron Munetsi, told African Aerospace earlier this year that as part of SAA's renewed focus on developing its continental African market access, it is now looking to expand the offering to countries closer to home. Among the African cities where SAA is looking at starting longhaul services are Harare International (Zimbabwe), Lusaka (Zambia), and Entebbe (Uganda).
“We are talking to other markets in Africa," he said. "We are talking to Zimbabwe about Harare-London, to Zambia about Lusaka-London and to Uganda about Entebbe-London. It’s been very well received. The Ghanaian government has been exceptionally supportive and the government of Uganda has approached us, asking what they need to do to fast-track the process. The Zimbabwean government is cooperating with us very well and the same with Zambia. We overfly most of these markets from Johannesburg O.R. Tambo, so it makes sense for us to drop in capacity as we go.”
As former British colonies, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Uganda have sizeable expatriate communities resident in the United Kingdom (UK). However, neither Lusaka nor Entebbe have enjoyed direct air services to London since British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) curtailed its Southern African services in the late 2000s. Since then, all connectivity to the UK has been undertaken through other intermediate hubs including Addis Ababa International; Johannesburg O.R. Tambo, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta, Dubai International, Doha Hamad International, and Cairo International.
Though Zambia and Uganda currently lack their own national carriers, in Zimbabwe's context, Air Zimbabwe (UM, Harare International) has identified Harare-London Gatwick as a route with the potential to help resurrect the ailing airline. However, owing to a combination of factors including unpaid debts owed to international creditors as well as an onboard product that struggles to compete with the likes of Emirates (EK, Dubai International) among others, Air Zimbabwe has held off resuming the service.
