Highlights A comprehensive overview of African airlines. Provides analytical results that can be used to determine sustainable business models for African airlines. Full Service carriers, that provide strong inter-city connections, are currently Africa’s most sustainable airlines. Regional carriers remain central to the continent’s long term air transport development. There is no need to create a completely new business model for Africa’s airlines.

    Abstract Although there is a vast amount of literature on airline business models and their evolution in changing global landscapes, there is a general lack of research into the applicability of those models, traditionally defined in European and North American contexts, to the African scene. Implicit in this study is the hypothesis that the African environment is unique enough to warrant its own host of strategies, which may be distinctive enough to form part of a new strategic template, or business model. Initially, a review of existing literature is undertaken to profile the African aviation environment and evaluate existing airline business models and their evolution, both globally and in Africa. The methodology consists firstly of a cluster exercise, whereby 57 African airlines are analysed in terms of their network and size, to yield a number of heterogeneous groups which serve to identify the current business models of airlines on the continent. Following this, eight airlines (representative of the groups outlined in the cluster analysis) were subsequently selected for analysis in terms of the Product and Organisational Architecture framework. While it was evident that the traditional models are followed in Africa, in some instances variations were apparent. Full-service network carriers and regional carriers were concluded as being the most prominent and stable in the African market. The applicability of the low-cost carrier model in Africa was also examined at length, with mixed results. The analysis also raised network density and connectivity as essential components of business models for delivering profits in an African context.


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    Title :

    Air transport in Africa: toward sustainable business models for African airlines


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2013-01-01


    Size :

    12 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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