AFRICAN Airlines Association (AFRAA) has lamented that international passenger and cargo traffic in last month was below the level recorded in the corresponding period of last year.Specifically, it disclosed that intra-Africa capacity was yet to hit 1.5 million seats per week, although the figure represents over 98 per cent of total capacity by African airlines on their respective domestic routes.According to statistics from AFRAA made available to The Guardian, Europe remains the most important intercontinental destination for African carriers but the share of African airlines remains small at only 36 per cent compared to the non-African operators,which stand at 64 per cent.The market to watch is the Middle East. Carriers from this market continue their aggressive market penetration as they target growing African destinations.Compared to January 2011, Middle East carriers have this month increased capacity to and from Africa by about four per cent. The number of flights increased from 374 last year to 416 per week. This is the only market segment that has seen capacity growth compared to the same month prior year.This year, capacity expansion is expected on the intra-African, Asian, Middle East and North American routes.Europe may not see significant capacity increase although it will continue to account for the bulk of all intercontinental traffic to and from Africa.Meanwhile, the AFRAA has launched a joint fuel purchase programme for nine of its member airlines following the conclusion of evaluation of tender bids received from a number of fuel companies.Secretary-General of AFRAA, Dr. Elijah Chingosho said the airlines acknowledged that the cost of fuel remains a major component of the operating expense of every airline, accounting for between 40 to 50 per cent of total direct operating costs.In addition to the cost, he said the unpredictable nature of fuel price makes it difficult for airlines to budget the cost of their operations.The project is aimed at attaining better and stable unit price of fuel for the participating airlines, assuring quality of the product and supply reliability whilst the relevant fuel suppliers will benefit from higher fuel volumes purchased by airlines.The airlines participating in the current Joint Fuel Purchase Project are, Air Malawi, Air Namibia, Air Seychelles, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, LAM Mozambique Airlines, Precision Air, Rwandair and TAAG Angola Airlines.The process, which began last year with the setting up of an AFRAA Joint Fuel Steering Committee is chaired by Chris Oanda of Kenya Airways, with Yemane Fitwi of Ethiopian Airlines as his deputy. It has sent out tenders to Jet A1 fuel suppliers serving various airports worldwide.
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