Sky's the limit for China-Africa air travel

More threads are being woven into the fabric of the air transport network linking China and Africa as economic ties are strengthened and more Chinese tourists experience the beauty of the continent.

Chinese carriers have become much more active in pursuing China-Africa routes, which mostly represent virgin territory for them.

China Southern Airlines, the largest Chinese airline in terms of fleet size, launched direct flights between Guangzhou and Nairobi on Aug 5, becoming the only Chinese airline offering direct services between China and Africa.

Air China, the national carrier, plans to inaugurate direct flights between Beijing and Johannesburg on Oct 29, and between Beijing and Addis Ababa on Nov 2.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China encouraged Chinese carriers to go back to Africa last year after canceling some routes a few years ago, and the biggest Chinese airlines, including Air China, China Southern, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, also have their own plans for the African market.

"The African air traffic market has huge potential, especially after Premier Li Keqiang proposed a China-Africa regional aviation cooperation plan in May 2014," says Wang Zhiqing, deputy head of the CAAC.

Under the plan, China will encourage Chinese enterprises to set up aviation joint ventures with African counterparts to provide civilian regional jets and jointly develop regional aviation in Africa.

China has signed official air service agreements with 17 African countries, including Ethiopia, South Africa and Tanzania, Wang says, and initiated other related agreements with six African countries, including Seychelles and Uganda.

"It is a new opportunity for Chinese aviation enterprises to develop in Africa," Wang says.

Fewer than 30 percent of air travelers between China and Africa are taking direct flights currently.

Chinese airlines used to operate flights to Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Angola, but halted the services due to financial and other reasons.

China Southern launched flights between Beijing and Lagos, Nigeria in 2006, but stopped the service two years later because of the global financial crisis and oil price hikes.

Chinese carriers' return to Africa started in June last year, when China Southern inaugurated direct services between Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, off the southeast coast of Africa.

The new route between Guangzhou and Nairobi will bring more investment opportunities and travelers to Africa, says China Southern Chairman Si Xianmin.

"The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative will present new historical opportunities for the aviation industry between China and Africa," he says, referring to the program using trade and investment to boost China's ties with other nations along ancient trade routes and elsewhere.

China Southern also has continued to look for more possible destinations in Africa, Si says. "Maybe the next destination is Johannesburg in South Africa," he adds.

Michael Kinyanjui, Kenyan ambassador to China, says China Southern will be an important catalyst for the promotion of trade and tourism between China and Kenya and the rest of Africa.

"The commencement of China Southern's direct flights between Guangzhou and Nairobi is a significant contribution to the connectivity envisaged in the initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road," he says.

The number of air passengers between China and Africa has grown by an average of 15 percent every year in the past few years to about 1.5 million last year, largely on African airlines, says Guo Jianye, director of the commercial steering committee of China Southern.

Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province in southern China, is an important hub for Chinese and African air passengers due to geographic advantages and a dynamic trading environment.

Travelers between China and Kenya reached 120,000 last year, Guo says, and 28 percent flew to or from Guangzhou, where plenty of traders from Africa do business.

Machinery, light industrial products and telecommunications devices produced in South China are big sellers in Africa. There also is potential for collaboration between Guangzhou and African countries in services including medicine, education, technology and tourism, Guo says.

The potential for air travel between Guangzhou and Africa is second only to that between Beijing and Africa, he says, with Guangzhou's passenger projections reaching almost 500,000 a year.

The picture also is bright for the whole of China, which has been Africa's largest trading partner since 2009. Bilateral trade between China and Africa went up by 5.5 percent year-on-year to nearly $221.9 billion last year. More than 2,000 Chinese-invested companies in the continent employ more than 80,000 locals.

Most of the Chinese companies in Africa are still state-owned construction and communications firms, but the number of privately owned enterprises also has risen as they have received subcontracts from the large state-owned companies, allowing them to build up their own business in Africa after learning the ropes.

The prosperous trading relationship between China and Africa also expands the air cargo business, making the global civil aviation industry optimistic about air cargo in Africa.

The International Air Transport Association Airline Industry Forecast 2014-18 shows that while international freight volumes are expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1 percent, emerging economies, particularly those in the Middle East and Africa, will be the fastest-growing markets.

Africa is projected to have a growth rate of 4.4 percent, says the IATA report.

Meanwhile, Africa's great natural beauty is attracting Chinese tourists as well. Several tour groups took China Southern's inaugural flight to Nairobi for the great migration of wildebeest that takes place in Kenya and Tanzania.

Besides the popularity of made-in-China products in Africa, the continent's less-costly labor and rich resources make it an ideal recipient of relocated Chinese manufacturing facilities, says Cai Jianming, a researcher at the market research firm CI Consulting.

African airlines have held overwhelming superiority in the China-Africa market in recent years. Carriers from Egypt, Ethiopia, Algeria, Kenya, Madagascar, Angola, Mauritius and South Africa ran 52 scheduled flights a week from the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou to Africa in the summer-autumn season last year.

They also continue to expand their service. On July 6, Air Mauritius started its service between Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and Mauritius.

Kenya Airways is also preparing to launch a Beijing-Nairobi route. It was planned for August of last year, but postponed by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, among other factors.

Kenya Airways transported 26,000 passengers from China to Africa in the first half of this year, a 20-percent year-on-year rise, says Chris Wang, country manager for Greater China at Kenya Airways. She says she expects growth to continue in China-Africa air passengers.

The African aviation industry as a whole remains underdeveloped but has great potential, she says. The past decade saw both the infrastructure and the financial situation of many African countries improve, attracting more airlines.

Ethiopian Airlines, which started flying to China in 1973, has direct flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to Addis Ababa every day, says Eddie Liu, marketing manager of the airline for China operations.

The company is researching an increase in capacity to serve the Chinese market with larger aircraft, more flights and more Chinese destinations, Liu says.

Airlines from other areas also have a share of the China-Africa market, especially the Gulf carriers, which are known for good service and luxury cabins. The three Middle Eastern giants - Qatar Airways, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways - also continue to invest in Africa, and their capacities in the continent have increased in recent years. They also have a geographic advantage in connecting China and Africa.

But for Chinese airlines, which just started their back-to-Africa plans and have not formed a network in the continent yet, collaboration with others, not competition, is what is called for.

With the Guangzhou-Nairobi route, China Southern plans to expand code-sharing services with Kenya Airways to explore the African market, says Guo of China Southern. Code-sharing is a business arrangement that allows two or more airlines to share the same flight.

Passengers flying between Guangzhou and Nairobi can connect to nearly 40 African cities from Nairobi by flying Kenya Airways. They also can connect to 39 cities in China and abroad, including Sydney and Melbourne, from Guangzhou by using China Southern, Guo says.

Chris Wang, of Kenya Airways, also says her company sees China Southern's new service more as an opportunity for cooperation than competition, even though the airline has daily flights between Guangzhou and Nairobi, with stopovers in Bangkok or Hanoi.

The new China Southern flights are enhancing the route's capacity and bringing more business opportunities to Kenya and Africa, she says. After China Southern's first flight arrived in Nairobi, the airline and Kenya Airways signed an agreement to explore further collaboration.

Also, the Chinese civil aviation industry's involvement in Africa is not focused solely on routes and flights, but also extends to local infrastructure and technology.

During his visit to Africa last year, Premier Li Keqiang said China hoped to work with the African Development Bank to establish a joint financing fund and build trilateral cooperation for Africa's infrastructure development, including the regional aviation and high-speed railway networks.

This would build on the existing yearslong collaboration between Chinese enterprises and the African civil aviation industry.

By 2014, at least 17 sub-Saharan African countries had or were in the process of acquiring Chinese-built airports.

HNA Group, the parent company of Hainan Airlines, the fourth largest Chinese carrier, spent $13 million this year to purchase a 6.2 percent stake in South Africa's Comair, which operates a full-service brand under a British Airways franchise and a low-cost carrier, Kulula, according to the CAPA Centre for Aviation. Comair flies within southern Africa, the website reports.

As early as 2010, HNA Group and the China-Africa Development Fund set up a joint venture - Africa World Airlines - with Ghana's Social Security and National Insurance Trust. The airline mainly runs domestic flights in Ghana.

HNA Group continues to look for opportunities to go back into Africa and joint ventures may be a way, analysts say.

Huang Min contributed to this story.

Contact the writers through liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/28/2015 page6)