2023-09-18 08:46:10
• Stuck between maintenance and rental costs
• The company is losing ground
• What radical solution?
Air Burkina has just acquired a Boeing 737-500, registered TL-VIP, leased from Via Air, a Central African company. The arrival of this plane reduces speculation regarding the future of the national airline. Indeed, the lease of the ATR72-500, which arrived in February 2023, has expired. The plane therefore returned to its owner. The Boeing 737, leased from Via Air, will replace the ATR. According to our information, Via Air belongs to David Lamoureux, Consul of Belgium in the Central African Republic. It is a plane around thirty years old which was taken by Via Air in September 2022, which previously flew for Air Djibouti.
The other aircraft in service is the Embraer 175 (XT-ABZ). It was regarding to return to its owner, Nordic Aviation Capital, at the end of August. The same goes for the 2 Embraer 195s, one of which has been in the garage for several years and the other grounded since its engine caught fire in the parking lot of Ouaga airport in 2022. The Embraer 195s are returning to Nordic Aviation Capital at the end of 2023. “Aged 16, they were introduced in 2018, in a deal concluded with the lessor Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC)”, according to the specialist newspaper Newsaero.
With the effective return of the ART 72 and the announced return of Embraer to its owner Nordic Aviation Capital, we wondered what would become of the company? Air Burkina looked for options, but it was that of this Boeing 737 which came to fruition. This is a very short-term solution and the company’s situation remains worrying.
Air Burkina’s problems are known. The company is short of cash. It has signed several subcontracting contracts and has a plethora of staff for the number of aircraft it has. The company is drowning in debt.
Created in 1967 as a state company, Air Burkina was privatized in 2001 for the benefit of the Agha Khan Group. In April 2017, the Agha Khan Group sold the company to the Burkinabe government for a symbolic franc. Air Burkina becomes a State Company but the company will lack the resources to acquire new planes. A situation that Covid-19 made worse, since the planes remained on the ground for 3 months.
Air Burkina decides to acquire Embraers brand aircraft. This option will prove disappointing. These Brazilian-made planes will break down one following the other until the rental of the ATR 72, registered LY-JUP, which arrived in Ouagadougou on February 4, 2023, according to a press release from the company. This ATR 72 rental is 15 years old and was formerly operated by Cabo Verde Airlines. It is an asset of Irish lessor Abelo Capital. Air Burkina took it on a Damp-Lease (rental) from the company Jump Air, a Lithuanian company specializing in aircraft chartering. Jump Air was created in 2021. The ATR was the only aircraft of this company which had also acquired it for rental in 2022. The original color of the aircraft being white, Air Burkina only installed a sticker bearing its logo on the side. The Air Burkina sticker was installed in a maintenance workshop in Tangier, Morocco, in early January 2023. In this operation, Air Burkina pays a monthly rental to Jump Air while providing accommodation for the pilots. Only the stewards and hostesses of the national company served on this plane alongside the Jump Air pilots, leaving aside the former Air Burkina pilots on the ground, because they were not qualified for an ATR and only had ‘only one Embraer in service. “It’s a short-term response,” said a specialist in the field.
Another very important detail, the maintenance of the ATR was carried out by the Italian company EU Wings, which is in fact the parent company of Jump Air. It was therefore difficult for Air Burkina to cover rental and maintenance costs through this operation.
In addition, “The ATR72 clearly reduces the ambitions for Air Burkina’s operations. It is a turboprop, a propeller plane, it is only relevant over distances of less than an hour. Beyond that, it is no longer profitable in terms of operational cost.
It is jet planes like the Embraer that are best suited for regional flights departing from Ouaga,” confided our aeronautics specialist. He believes that this rental contract was very disadvantageous, given that Jump Air comes with its pilots and mechanics. No Burkinabè mechanic can touch this device, because they do not have a license to do so. Indeed, several intermediaries in such an operation increase Air Burkina’s costs.
But for passengers, the arrival of the ATR was a great relief. But operationally, it was just a one-off solution that did not solve the real problems of the company which needs new money to meet charges and debts.
The situation at Air Burkina has caused many executives to flee to other rival companies in the sub-region, Air Côte d’Ivoire, Air Sénégal and Asky Airlines.
JB
Boxed
Which solution ?
DIn its search for a solution, Air Burkina signed, on October 20, 2020, an agreement with the American company African Global Development (AGD) in which AGD undertakes to supply Airbus aircraft and propeller aircraft. The total cost of the investment is around 250 million euros (around 160 billion FCFA). On the side of the Ministry of Transport, we denounce this agreement with which AGD requested a letter of credit as a financial guarantee to go to aircraft rental companies to acquire aircraft.
Another search for a solution was the audience granted, on January 21, 2021, by the Burkinabè Minister of Transport at the time, Vincent Timbindi Dabilgou, to a delegation from the manufacturer Airbus to discuss the acquisition of Airbus A220 aircraft.
Meanwhile, Air Burkina is losing passengers to its competitors in the sub-region.
Liz Transport, which began its flights in 2022, has 2 ATR 72s with 70 seats each. Liz Transport, which serves Bobo-Dioulasso and Lomé, is waiting for 2 other new planes to attack the sub-region. Air Côte d’Ivoire is refueling its largest aircraft on its daily Ouaga-Abidjan route. It is the same as Asky, which refuels on the Ouaga-Lomé, Ouaga-Niamey line. The survival of the national airline is more than ever at stake.
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