Chris Jasper
FASTJET was in talks about adding more Airbus short-haul jets to the fleet, the discount carrier said yesterday, as it sought to open bases in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya next year while expanding operations in Tanzania.
FastJet, which operates three Airbus A319s, was negotiating with a number of leasing companies about aircraft availability in the next three to six months, with expansion plans calling for as many as 13 of the type by the end of next year, chief executive Ed Winter said yesterday.
“People were sceptical about us putting A319s into Africa but they’ve worked well with good reliability and punctuality. We’re getting close to saying these planes are full and I hope we’re about to see an opportunity to really expand.”
FastJet’s strategy through the end of next year called for seven A319s to be based in Tanzania, where operations began in 2012.
The London-based carrier also envisaged stationing three planes in Zambia, and two in Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe’s government had proved receptive to approaches, Winter said. A sole aircraft could be located in Kenya.
FastJet stock fell 10.17 percent by 10.48am in London after it posted an underlying first-half loss of $30.5 million (R342m), before interest and tax. The expansion needed funds beyond the £15m (R273m) raised in April, and Winter said talks were ongoing with African backers and that he would also be receptive to a deal with an airline investor.
Discussions were under way about a more immediate plan to source two A319s from the leasing unit of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Winter said. The aircraft would replace planes to be returned to Volito Aviation Services of Sweden.
FastJet aimed to secure an air operating certificate for Zambia by year end and could add international routes quickly there, Winter said. Talks in Kenya had been more drawn out, and local rules would require a year of domestic-only flying before foreign services could be added, he said.
Plans to establish the first pan-African discount network would continue to focus on east Africa for the foreseeable future, he said, with the possibility of bases in Angola and Ghana, where it already held air operating certificates, receding.
Winter sees a fleet of up to 34 jets, nine in South Africa, seven each in Tanzania and Kenya, four each in Uganda and Zimbabwe and three in Zambia. FastJet’s first international route, Dar es Salaam-Johannesburg, began last October, and it has added services from the Tanzanian city to Lusaka, Harare and Entebbe.
Winter said talks had resumed on implementing a code-share deal with Dubai-based Emirates, for which Dar es Salaam is an expanding destination.
Middle Eastern carriers are candidates to invest in FastJet, in which EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou holds a 10 percent stake but has been critical of recent pay awards to executives.
The first-half loss included $13.9m from Tanzania and $13.5m from the Angola and Ghana operations, now suspended. Tanzanian sales almost doubled to $19m, with total customers and revenue per passenger up about 40 percent. – Bloomberg