- Esayas
ASKY is one of Africa’s leading airlines and 13 years after its establishment, the carrier is making waves in the continent. With 15 aircraft in its fleet and operating flights into 28 cities within a space of 13 years, it is the airline to beat. The Chief Executive Officer of ASKY, Esayas WoldeMariam Hailu in an interview with the Publisher of Atqnews said that the airline besides its huge potential is also profitable and that in the near future the airline would like to expand to Khartoum, Cairo, Casablanca and Mauritania. He also spoke on the relations between ASKY and Nigeria. He also called on the Federal Government to assist the local airlines by creating an enabling environment for them to operate. Excerpts.
Asky has been around for 13 years or more. Is ASKY a profitable airline?
Yes, ASKY was established in the year 2010 and now it is 13 years and Asky is a profitable airline. It is not only profitable in terms of economics, but it is also profitable in terms of fulfilling its vision and mission of connecting West, Central, South, East Africa with each other and connecting people and goods and cultures. So, it is profitable in all dimensions.
How has Asky fulfilled this vision?
First of all, the commercial tagline for Asky is the Pan-African airline. By saying this, we are not just invoking slogans, we mean what we say in Asky. Asky is a real Pan-Africa, number one. By connecting people from Cape Verde, from the western most to Kenya, Nairobi the Eastern most to Niamey, Niger the Northern most and Johannesburg, South Africa the Southernmost. And just about anywhere else in between 28 destinations. This means west, central, south, east Africa, building one of the largest networks connecting Africa. That means serving the Pan-African initiative, the Continental Free Trade Agreement, and before it is even being fulfilled, the Single African Air Transport Market. So this is one of the Pan-African attributes of Asky, by the sheer network architecture. It shows Pan-Africanism.
Number two, look at Asky’s name. Asky means African Sky. Look at the color of the logo. The golden and the brown. The brown is the brown colour of the Africans. The golden is all the minerals and the gold which is in Africa, be it in Ghana, Mali, Niger, and elsewhere.
Number three, Asky is a Pan-African airline . Asky is employing pilots and cabin crew from Senegal to Chad to Ghana to Gabon to Benin to Togo to Niger and from everywhere. Even from Nigeria, from Sokoto to Maiduguri, to Ogun State and to Abia State, all geopolitical zones. In fact, the largest concentrations of pilots flying as Asky are from Nigeria. So this shows you that Asky is Pan-African in terms of its employment opportunities, in terms of its brand, look and feel and logo, in terms of its network. It is living true to its claim. It does not deny its claim of being Pan-African.
How profitable is Asky, at least in West Africa?
You know, Western Central Africa, is a high operating cost medium. So for Asky to make profit, Asky needs to struggle. There are two components for profitability. The top line revenue and the middle line cost and the bottom-line profit. The top line revenue is uncontrollable because it’s exposed to competition. So, competition is external, all players are there. They dump their prices, they do all kinds of things to compete, to take market share. So that is uncontrollable. Asky is endeavoring to keep profitable because it strictly controls its middle line, the cost. It has a high regiment of cost control. Because of that, it makes profits. And then that helps Asky to plough back part of the profit as an incentive to the travelling public to produce a single unit cost of available seat-kilometre, a single seat on the aircraft to be produced at the minimum cost to be able to sell it. That is how Asky struggles to be profitable.
Is Asky an independent airline or a feeder airline to Ethiopian Airlines?
Well, Asky is an independent airline; it is the son of its own father. As an African airline, it is a private commercial company owned by shareholders. Of course, Ethiopian Airlines is part of the shareholders. But Asky has got its own board, its own network. Asky and Ethiopian Airlines have a very beautiful commercial relationship. They feed each other. They have shares. They have special corporate agreements. And because Ethiopian Airlines is the bigger brand, Asky being associated with Ethiopian Airlines has given Asky a very good commercial dividend. Otherwise, Asky is a company of its own, with its own shareholders, with its own board. So, it’s an independent commercial company.
How did Asky start and how has it grown over the last 13 years?
Asky started from a humble beginning. It was operating Bombardier Q400s, which are Turboprops aircraft with ultra-narrow bodies. Now, Asky has migrated into jet engines. Asky is operating B737 MAX, B737-800, new generations. Asky now has 15 aircraft and 28 destinations. Asky has diversified its network all the way to East Africa, Kenya, Nairobi. All the way to South Africa, Johannesburg, all the way to the westernmost part Praia Cape Verde, and a big network of 28 destinations. So , Asky has grown within the last 13 years. It has outgrown from a humble beginning of a regional operator, and has truly become a pan-African airline.
How does Asky fulfill this promise of a Pan-African airline when it doesn’t cover most of Africa?
Well, Asky is now covering many of the Sub-Saharan African major markets. But Asky has a plan of widening its network to places where it is not currently going. Asky also has a plan to diversify, crossing the Mediterranean to go to Paris, Madrid and other places.
What is the relationship between Asky and Nigeria which is the major market for the airline in Africa?
Nigeria is the leader for Africa in many contexts. Number one, it is the largest African population and it is the biggest economy. And it has the largest aviation traffic, the traveling public, highly mobile. Traffic of more than 230 million population, very young population, highly mobile. So, Asky is highly desirous to serve the Nigerian public as it continues to do right now. And Nigeria is a very good host. Number one, the Nigerian customers are patronizing Asky. And Asky is fulfilling its promise to the Nigerian public by serving Abuja and Lagos. And Asky wishes to cooperate with the local Nigerian operators to have commercial agreements so that they can connect the traffic from all the geopolitical zones of Nigeria and to feed Asky either in Abuja or Lagos, so that the Asky can convey that to the vast network within the continent of Africa. And the Nigerian government, the Nigerian Ministry of Aviation, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, and the Nigerian travel agency community. These are very good partners and regulators to work with. Asky feels very much at home in Nigeria, as it is an African brand.
You started flights to South Africa and Nairobi, how well have you done in these markets?
Well, these are one of the big spots on the continent of Africa. We started South Africa last year and Nairobi just started in October. South Africa is doing well in terms of traffic. The yield in South Africa is very low because of high competition, so we need to work on that. And Nairobi is catching up. It’s a very good market because Nairobi has corporate traffic, leisure traffic. Also, we are bringing tourism into Kenya and we are bringing corporate business from Kenya to the rest of Africa. So, it is doing well.
Where else in Africa do we expect you to operate into?
Well, in the near future I would like to expand to Khartoum, Cairo, Casablanca and Mauritania .
How soon would that be?
As soon as resources allow. You know, having aircraft now that global aviation is recovering from the COVID pandemic depression. Now, the cost of ownership for an aircraft is very formidable. As soon as we have enough resources, we would like to diversify, to widen our network to those places.
You talked about crossing the Mediterranean. What is your vision for Europe?
Well, Europe, you know, the Francophone Africa, everybody’s dream is to travel to Paris. So, Paris is one of the natural destinations that Asky would like to serve. And also Spain, Madrid, and Lisbon, Portugal. These are some of the spots that we are targeting.
What is the vision for America?
Right now, America is a big leap. It requires a big wide-body aircraft because it’s more than six hours to seven, eight and nine hours to the east coast of the United States. So it requires wide-body aircraft and having wide-body aircraft is also very expensive. Right now, we are serving the US route 7 times a week to Newark and 3 times a week to Washington DC in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines. Asky is putting its commercial hub on Ethiopian Airlines operated flights. So Asky flight can be sold to America right now in cooperation with the culture of Ethiopian Airlines. But in the future, that is also one of our targets.
“Nigeria is a big Aviation Market with a formidable and Challenging Ecosystem, the Operators need Support to thrive”
In aviation, you are seen as one of the Nigerian specialists. As an observer, how do you describe the Nigerian aviation environment?
It is a very big aviation market by the share, by the mobility, the people are very much travellers in Nigeria. In Nigeria it is good to have functioning domestic and international Nigerian companies. But the aviation ecosystem in Nigeria, the way I look at it, is a little bit formidable and difficult for the Nigerian authorities. So my advice and my appeal for the Nigerian lawmakers is that they need to enable the operators in Nigeria to be able to thrive because the market is so big for the international and domestic operators.
There is no shortage of market but the government should enable the Nigerian operators by way of good regulation that would create the enabling environment; by way of making them thrive. Making the law, so that they can help them develop the aviation infrastructure, making the law to be very conducive for the local operators, so that they can grow up to the task and cover the region and the continent. This is my appeal. Otherwise, there are a lot of people who are really interested in making aviation work in Nigeria. And also the market is so much in demand and saturated and there are a lot of operators in the sector. My appeal to the Nigerian government is to enable them and push them to grow. That is my simple advice. Of course the whole aviation ecosystem needs to be built to provide an enabling environment for aviation.
What is your high point as the CEO of Asky?
Well, the singular high point I have in mind is that Africa needs aviation proficiency. People talk about brain drain from Africa to the developed world, but when it comes to aviation, Africa does not have the trained aviation expertise to drain. Africa needs to train a lot of aviation experts. This is a highly skilled intensive industry which requires license, modulated license and other things. The high point is that Asky is bent on developing aviation in the region by way of training aviation professionals. This needs to be done in every country in Africa to train aviation professionals. The more aviation professionals we have, the more we can help aviation to grow in the continent.
“If Asky overtakes Ethiopian Airlines as biggest Airline in Africa it will be a Credit to ET”
You were formerly a manager at Ethiopian Airlines in Nigeria. You went back; and rose all the way to M.D. International Services for E.T. How do we describe Essayas who is the CEO of Asky? How do we describe your aviation experience?
Aviation is a very interesting industry. As far as I am concerned, right from the young age, graduating from the university 33 years ago, I joined Ethiopian Airlines. And my career has been in Ethiopian Airlines, working in different places, both at home base and overseas. As you mentioned, the Managing Director of International Services, the Chief Commercial Officer, was for 32 years and in the 33rd year, I am now at the helm of affairs at Asky. So 33 years of aviation experience has made me to really specialise in one industry. This is quite a rewarding experience to see African aviation grow from the humble beginning to where it is now and African airline operators coming to the global arena like Ethiopian airlines. It is a fulfilling experience. It’s a rewarding experience that I had in aviation.
What is your vision for Asky?
Asky has a very big potential as a Pan-African airline. It is already connecting many African places, but it wants to widen and deepen in Africa and to link Africa to the rest of the world, especially to Europe and across the Atlantic, to Latin America and North America as well and also diversifying to the Middle East and even to Asia. Asky has a promising potential to do all this. The vision for Asky is to grow from an airline into a complete aviator, having its own maintenance facilities, training facilities and all other things in the aviation value chain. Asky needs to diversify into being a complete aviator. That is my vision for Asky.
Do you see Asky overtaking Ethiopian Airlines as the biggest airline in Africa?
Well, Ethiopian Airlines has been a mentor. Ethiopian has set out on a vision to help African airlines to come up to the task, up to the role, so that the majority of Africa’s traffic is uplifted by non-African airlines, to belong to the African airlines. Ethiopian Airlines is a big mentor. If Asky overtakes Ethiopian Airlines, it will be a big CV for Ethiopian Airlines as a good mentor to have brought African Airlines up to that level. Whatever time is going to be, time will tell us. We just have to wait and see what time is going to reveal.
In one sentence, how do you describe the future of Asky?
Well, Asky as a Pan-African airline is a jewel in African aviation. It has a very, very big potential, so we are very much sure that Asky is definitely going to dominate the African skies to carpet the whole continent with its wings. That is how I would describe the future of Asky. END
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