Breaking News – Rwanda chosen to host COMESA aviation centre

NEW COMESA AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTRE GOES TO RWANDA

The COMESA Secretariat, based in Lusaka / Zambia, has yesterday signed an agreement to establish an air traffic control centre in ‘the land of a thousand hills’, following extensive prior discussions between the two parties. COMESA, which extends from Egypt to Zambia and from Kenya to Congo, will build the new centre in the town of Karisimbi / Northern Rwanda, where the government already operates a major communications centre of its own, i.e. providing much needed infrastructure for the project.

Air space management will be vested in the new facility for COMESA member states as will other related functions of navigation control services.

The project was strongly lobbied for by a number of other countries too and it is gratifying for Rwanda to have been chosen over other – arguably more advanced ‘aviation countries’ in the region.

It was not immediately possible to ascertain how many position the centre will provide for competent staff, who are to be recruited from both Rwanda and other COMESA member states. 

 

News update – Bridge enroute to Zambia washed away

CRUCIAL BRIDGE ENROUTE TO ZAMBIA DESTROYED

The rains brought into Tanzania by the recent tropical cyclone, which swept that part of the Indian Ocean, especially Madagascar and Mozambique, also wreaked havoc in Tanzania when an important traffic link, the bridge over the Msanzi River was completely washed away near Sumbawanga, bringing road traffic to a standstill.

This in particular applies to transit traffic to and from Zambia across the nearby border, as the road itself too suffered major damage, a route often used by tourists travelling by road with their own 4×4’s or on the back of overland truck as part of an organized tour across the continent.

Contractors working on a different section of this road – reported previously here – were then immediately drafted in by the local administration to assess the extensive damage and commence repairs, assisted by the local population whose livelihood depends on traffic flowing both ways.

The rains were extremely heavy and swept through the Southern part of Tanzania with some rains however even reaching well into Kenya, giving an indication how strong and destructive the cyclone was at sea, before making landfall and losing strength.

Breaking News – Egypt Air in financial dire straits

EGYPT AIR IN DIRE STRAITS

Information was received from usual well informed airline sources that Egypt Air, a member of the global Star Alliance, is seeking assistance from fellow member airlines in need of more aircraft to lease out, by dry or wet lease, as many as two dozen aircraft during the upcoming summer season. The leases are aimed to reducing cost while earning the keep of the aircraft, following a dramatic loss of transit traffic via Cairo and traffic into Egypt’s main city of Cairo and other in particular resort towns at the Red Sea and along the River Nile. One source has put the traffic and subsequent revenue reduction to as much as 75 percent, causing the financial alarm bells to ring at the airline head offices in Cairo.

Egypt Air has in recent years made great strides towards a fleet modernization and also in terms of network expansion and their membership in Star Alliance has undoubtedly helped them to achieve such progress in such short a time. However, the political fallout in Egypt has made a huge impact on the country’s economic performance too, in particular the tourism industry and aviation sector, where resorts are standing empty and aircraft fly with few passengers or even remain grounded in an effort to save cost.

It is now known how many planes Egypt Air presently keeps on the ground but sources from Cairo have indicated that crews and other staff have been asked to take unpaid leave to help save their long term jobs, while other have indicated that about a third of the current fleet is ‘parked’.

Unless the government in Cairo stabilises soon and restores market confidence, in particular for the tourism industry at the Red Sea resorts, the Mediterranean resorts and the Nile – river cruise boats are parked in double and triple lines right now due to lack of tourists – the sector may stare financial ruin in the face.

However, the same sources also pointed out that they are – ahead of ITB and other crucial tourism trade fairs – working on a strategy to bring tourist visitors back to Egypt, even if at the expense of substantial pricing drops, just to keep the sector ticking over until the crisis finally comes to an end. Adds this correspondent that if indeed prices for vacations in Egypt are coming down substantially, this may be the right time to take a flight to Cairo, visit the Pyramids, take a Nile cruise to see the temples and monuments and spend some time along the sunny beaches of the Red Sea. Any takers?

Breaking News – Higher fuel supplements on the way by African airlines

AFRICAN AIRLINES BEMOAN FUEL PRICE INCREASES

Airlines flying across the East African region have started mulling over an imminent increase in their fuel supplements, charged over and above the ticket costs to cover for the present price explosion. Since the outbreak of political unrest a few weeks ago in Tunisia the wave of protests have since also swept the Egyptian government from office, but it was the crisis now evident and unfolding in Libya which drove crude oil prices up even more. Prices for crude in Europe and the US has risen by over 25 US Dollars since the onset of the troubles, and this translated to immediate rises in the cost of Jet A 1 and AVGAS for the East African supplies now landed in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, Eastern Congo and Ethiopia. One airline executive said on condition of strict anonymity: ‘the fuel price increase in 2007 and 2008 was a major factor for airlines losing money. It drew focus to fuel hedging but this can only do so much and if one does not get it right, the losses can be even worse. Cost of jet fuel are already much higher in East Africa than other parts of the aviation world and an airline cannot totally absorb the rise in fuel cost since our margins are already very thin. I see no option but to consider raising fuel supplements soon, if the prices for the next Jet A 1 delivery is higher again than the last one. If we don’t do that our fares will not cover our operating cost and we end up making losses.’

It is expected that AFRAA will soon address this issue too on behalf of their African airline membership but unless political stability returns soon, prices may rise to new record heights first, hurting aviation and the economy in general not just in Africa but the rest of the world.

News updates – Zanzibar’s tourism stakeholders demand better services

ZANZIBAR TOURISM INVESTORS DEMAND ‘BETTER’ FROM GOVERNMENT

Water, electricity, security and garbage removal, amongst many other issues, were the main problems cited by the Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors, in short ZATI, when they recently met with government officials to discuss matters of mutual interest and also of ongoing and growing concern.

Other more administrative matters cited by a source from the ‘Spice Island’ were to do with the controlling and elimination of non-licensed operators, which allegedly not only evade license fees but also taxes due to government, besides giving the sector a bad name when they misbehave with foreign tourists.

The tourism industry is arguably Zanzibar’s biggest economic factor, besides the export of the traditional spices and fishing, but according to stakeholders does not receive the level of governmental recognition it deserves, partly – as another source quietly put it – because so many of the investors are foreigners who do not loudly criticise government or openly demand that public services are rendered as they should be. However, local stakeholders have now taken their demands up with government, also on behalf of their more ‘silent’ foreign counterparts, hoping that finally some action is being taken, and water and electricity supplies made more reliable – of course crucially important to the resorts along the island’s sandy beaches

Breaking News – Somali ocean terrorists kill American hostages

THE DEATH OF THE YACHTSMEN

When news were confirmed yesterday afternoon that the four Americans, captured with their yacht off the coast of Oman, had died at the hand of their captors, the problem of the ocean terrorist took another turn to the worse. Often called a problem from hell, the hell that Somalia has become with warlords and Islamic radicals fighting for power, it is now finally clear that ocean terrorism is a reality and should no longer be romanticised as ‘piracy’.

In the old days piracy was globally a hanging offense, and the justice meted out to captured pirates was swift and final, when they were strung up on ship’s masts or, if at all returned to port, tried in court and then hanged at the gallows.

It will be little consolation to the families of those who died, that most of the Somalis on board of the yacht too were killed. Gunfire erupted on the captured yacht, a rocket was fired at a nearby American navy war ship  which had been shadowing the yacht and in fact been talking to the captors for a while and only then was navy personnel deployed. To their and the world’s horror they found 3 of their fellow citizens dead and one more mortally wounded. Several of the surviving ocean terrorists were taken into custody and are expected to be handed over to the US justice system, where – considering the gravity of their offenses and the cold blooded murder of innocent lives – the death penalty will most likely be demanded by prosecutors.  Knowing the American legal system and the affinity of members of the legal profession to rush to the aid of the accused, trying to delay the inevitable, this may take some time but the outcome surely will be certain.

Meanwhile, this latest tragedy is just a step short of the ocean terrorists eventually managing to highjack a passenger cruise liner, as often discussed here, the worst of the nightmare scenarios imaginable. It is clear that harsher measures and a more robust approach is now finally needed to deter the Somalis from leaving their own shores to wreak havoc on international shipping. Once again it is therefore suggested, if not demanded – to the disdain of several and yet the broad support from most – that a total shipping embargo be enforced on Somalia, with only sanctioned vessels carrying humanitarian aid permitted through and escorted to port, and that any ‘mothership’ or skiffs attempting to leave the territorial waters of Somalia be treated as hostile and be engaged, to either return immediately or else be sunk.

That language will be swiftly understood by the ocean terrorists, if any – after spreading such a message  – will remain active or continue trying to seajack ships.

Somalia per se deserves better, but since the fall of their former central government under despot Siad Barre in the early 90’s some resemblance of order has only been restored in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which government is seeking international recognition and presents itself as the ‘good Somalis’. Much of the rest of Somali is literally in civil war, with war lords and militias of various descriptions seeking to outgun each other in their quest for territorial and economic control, in total disregard for the safety of the civilian population living in their area of operation. In fact, the Islamic radicals have turned on their own citizens declaring death penalties by stoning for the obscurest of reasons, making a mockery of the religion of Islam and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

Therefore, here too a robust mandate is required for the AU ‘peacekeeping force’ to decisively engage the combatants on the ground, rout them and restore peace and civil order across the country. In fact more troops are needed on the ground and my own country, Uganda – subjected last July to terror attacks herself in retaliation for her role in Somalia – has offered more troops but other African nations must follow suit. Once that is achieved, an international support effort can start to rebuild government, institutions, and infrastructure and bring both immediate relief to the hungry and suffering people but also restore Somalia’s long term ability to look after herself.

Living in denial only leads to more such tragedies as the killing of the four Americans, and considering the location of their capture in what was thought to be safe waters off Oman also shows that the ocean terrorists keep probing the naval coalition’s sea defences as they spread their bloody handiwork further and further into the Indian Ocean.

Their threat to kill hostages already held on captured vessels near the Somali shores is likely a bluff and needs to be called, and when navy vessels appear nearby with guns aimed at shore positions, helicopters with commandos swoop in and board the captured ships, it will soon be over. The land bases and hitherto safe havens of the ocean terrorist must be treated like Al Qaida hideouts – some of the proceeds from ransom payments are believed to find their way into Al Qaida off-springs in Somalia anyway – and they must be found and then destroyed to deny the terrorists their hideouts.

This view will undoubtedly bring about some opposition again, likely too some more threats, but the majority of civilised people, now painfully aware of the fate of the four Americans, will undoubtedly be in support, if not asking in fact for more radical measures.

Sincere condolences are extended from everyone at the eTN team to the families and friends of the murdered sailors and may their souls rest in eternal peace.

Watch this space.