West Africa is a lucrative route for many carriers, and the U.S.-West Africa link has become a cash cow since U.S.-based United Airlines exited Lagos in July, taking 3,000 seats off the U.S. route, Graphic Online reported.
Yet West Africa, despite its 40-plus airports and 300 million population in 15 countries, lacks a strong airline and has no airport hub, Graphic.com reported.
Today, 80 percent of all aviation traffic in West Africa is carried by non-African carriers and about 15 percent by non- West African carriers.
East African airline Kenya Airways recorded a 28 percent increase in passengers in West Africa for the year ending June 2016, and attributes the increase in flights to resumed service following an interruption in 2015 by the Ebola epidemic, according to The Exchange.
United Airlines offered nonstop service to Lagos, Nigeria, from its hub in Houston, but discontinued those flights, instead adding flights between San Francisco and Tel Aviv in Israel, USA Today reported.
This left Delta as the only U.S. carrier to offer nonstop service between the U.S. and Africa.
Source
United cited poor financial performance and weakness in the energy sector for ending the route. Houston and Lagos are both key centers for the oil and energy markets.
“The … route has been underperforming financially for several years,” United said in a statement. “Because of its importance to key Houston-based customers, we continued to invest in it; however, the recent downturn in the energy sector has caused these customers to spend less on travel.”
– See more at: http://afkinsider.com/131031/west-africa-is-increasingly-lucrative-for-airlines-but-lacks-a-hub/#sthash.IPR2XHi0.dpuf
Elections under way in Zambia
JOHANNESBURG – Zambians began voting for a new president and legislators on Thursday, millions are expected to cast their ballots before polls close at 6:00pm local time.
The campaigns have been largely marred by unprecedented political violence.
This follows years of peaceful transitions of power.
President Edgar Lungu faces Hakainde Hichilema of the opposition United Party for National Development.
Lungu took office last January after the death of President Michael Sata.
Both of their campaigns have been marred by violence.
For the first time, a candidate must win more than 50 percent of the vote or face a runoff election.
The vote comes against the backdrop of lethargic growth as weak commodity prices have hit Africa’s second biggest copper producer.
Lungu and Hichilema, have both said they are confident of outright victory.
Supporters of Lungu’s ruling Patriotic Front and Hichilema’s United Party for National Development have clashed in the run-up to the poll, forcing the electoral commission to suspend campaigning at one point.
Source
National carrier slapped with R104.6 million fine
The Johannesburg High Court has ordered South African Airways to pay Nationwide Airlines damages of R104.6 million, with interest.
After an investigation by the Competition Tribunal, SAA’s misconduct was in contravention of the Competition Act. The tribunal found that the airline used its dominance and incentive agreements with travel agents to divert potential passengers to SAA flights at the expense of its rivals.
Source
West Africa Is Increasingly Lucrative For Airlines, But Lacks A Hub
West Africa is a lucrative route for many carriers, and the U.S.-West Africa link has become a cash cow since U.S.-based United Airlines exited Lagos in July, taking 3,000 seats off the U.S. route, Graphic Online reported.
Yet West Africa, despite its 40-plus airports and 300 million population in 15 countries, lacks a strong airline and has no airport hub, Graphic.com reported.
Today, 80 percent of all aviation traffic in West Africa is carried by non-African carriers and about 15 percent by non- West African carriers.
East African airline Kenya Airways recorded a 28 percent increase in passengers in West Africa for the year ending June 2016, and attributes the increase in flights to resumed service following an interruption in 2015 by the Ebola epidemic, according to The Exchange.
United Airlines offered nonstop service to Lagos, Nigeria, from its hub in Houston, but discontinued those flights, instead adding flights between San Francisco and Tel Aviv in Israel, USA Today reported.
This left Delta as the only U.S. carrier to offer nonstop service between the U.S. and Africa.
Source
United cited poor financial performance and weakness in the energy sector for ending the route. Houston and Lagos are both key centers for the oil and energy markets.
“The … route has been underperforming financially for several years,” United said in a statement. “Because of its importance to key Houston-based customers, we continued to invest in it; however, the recent downturn in the energy sector has caused these customers to spend less on travel.”
– See more at: http://afkinsider.com/131031/west-africa-is-increasingly-lucrative-for-airlines-but-lacks-a-hub/#sthash.IPR2XHi0.dpuf
Why Africa’s Pharmaceutical Market Is Attracting Big Drug Firms
Africa’s fast growing pharmaceutical market is attracting big drug manufactures who are faced with thinning profits in tough developed countries markets.
In just 10 years – between 2003 and 2013 — Africa’s pharmaceutical industry grew from $4.7 billion in to over $20.8 billion, according to a Quartz Africa report, and was expected to grow at between six and 11 percent over the next five years driven by a growing middle class demanding more prescription medicines, generics, over-the-counter medicines and medical devices.
“By 2016, pharmaceutical spending in Africa is expected to reach US $30 billion,” a popular study published by IMS Health Solutions in 2013 said.
As many African economies experience a steadily growing middle class, the disease burden of sub-Saharan Africa has shifted from infectious diseases to the chronic, non-communicable diseases experienced by Western populations, Foreign Policy reported.
With the rise of the middle class across Africa non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes are growing and are expected to account 60 percent of illness and 65 percent of death on the 2020, according to the World Health Organization.
Source
The same diseases were only responsible for 28 percent of illnesses and 35 percent of deaths on the continent in the 1990s.
As a result local drug manufacturers are integrating with bigger foreign players to be able to address these growing demand for lifestyle change medications.
– See more at: http://afkinsider.com/130896/130896/#sthash.6BqTF7E0.dpuf