George Mawadri, British Airways’ commercial manager in Kenya told the Business Daily that “There are great opportunities in Africa and we are eyeing the region keenly.” Likewise, Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, had said in April, “Although Africa was the hardest hit by the crisis, its recovery has been so remarkable that we could be at the beginning of what history will describe as Africa’s decade.”

Major carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, British Airways, Brussels, Lufthansa, Turkish Airline, Swiss International, and Delta have been introducing new African routes on their networks and increasing frequency to tap into the raising economic profile of Africa. In addition to the oversees airlines, domestic airlines like Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Egypt Air and the Royal Air Morocco have been increasing their presence in the region and connecting their hubs to other international routes.

This July Belgian airline, Brussels, launched four new African destinations to its network — Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo — and increased frequency to Ivory Coast. Emirates with 19 cities in its network and Qatar Airways with similar strong presence in the continent clearly indicate the Middle Eastern airlines will make at least many African cities as a stopover location to extend their airprint to other far-off international destinations.

Africa overcame the meltdown contrary to many forecasts including that of the World Bank, and it is estimated, at this pace of recovery, an economic growth of about 5 percent by the end of this year. Furthermore, in 2011, half of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies are expected to be in Africa.

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In November 2008, the state-owned airlines had signed an agreement with Bombardier Aerospace to purchase eight Q400 NextGen turboprop airliners. Wake said that they had placed orders for more airliners due to the expectation of higher traffic in 2010. He acknowledged that Bombardier’s performance including longer range, higher payload and lower operability cost were the major factors which compelled them to opt for the same airliner once again.

EA saw a turnaround in profits ever since it won Best African Airline Award in 2006. The airlines recorded just about $16mn profit in 2006-07 fiscal but the profits soared ever after its sustained efforts on marketing Ethiopia began in large scale since early last year.

EA is one of the largest airlines from the African continent, and one of the few flight operators that has made profits in the current global financial mess. It should be noted, EA’s profit story came especially after last year the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) predicted major downward shake-up in the profits of many air carriers from the region.

Several African air carriers suffered losses owing to decline in traffic from Europe last year. Africa being described as the major growing power in aviation industry saw close to 9 percent slide in total traffic and flights to Europe registered around 10 percent decline.

EA feels if the fuel prices remained stable; it would not be a problem to generate same kind of profit this fiscal too. The air carrier is embarked on a massive marketing drive in the US to attract tourists to its country including roping in the services of NBA legend Manute Bol as brand ambassador of the airline.

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