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Transportation in Africa

  • New markets for Angola Integrated multimodal transport network to unlock new markets

    ANGOLA, 2016/03/01 Transport was a problem in Angola long before it became a priority, hindered by challenging terrain, centuries of neglect by Portugal’s colonial administrators and the ravages of the 1975-2002 civil war. Starting over virtually from scratch is seen by a lot of Angolans as an opportunity to create the network of technologically advanced logistical platforms that will be needed as the country continues to rebuild and modernise Aside from opening up new foreign markets for sectors such as fishing, mining and agriculture, a fully integrated network of port, rail, road and air transport-based logistical platforms is set to create jobs and reduce the country’s dependence on oil and natural gas, according to Transport Minister Augusto da Silva Tomás. It should likewise create the conditions for improved commercial ties between provinces and encourage a wider range of mobility and contact part people who share a common identity as Angolans.

  • Somalia: Two Somali Airport Employees Detained Over Plane Blast

    SOMALIA, 2016/02/09 Somali authorities arrested two employees of the Mogadishu airport in connection with an explosion on board a Somalian passenger plane caused by a bomb, a spokesman for the Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said. On Tuesday, a blast tore a hole in the side of the Airbus A321, belonging to the Dubai-based Daallo Airlines, minutes next it took off from the Mogadishu airport to fly to Djibouti.

  • Dr Getachew Betru, CEO of the Ethiopian Railways Corporation

    ETHIOPIA, 2016/01/29 The new 800km Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway line is on track to open fully this year and its anticipated impact on the socio-economic development of the country, and indeed the region, is expected to be dramatic. The result of new technology, talent and trust, it comes just months next the Ethiopian capital inaugurated sub-Saharan Africa’s initial light rail system, similarly signaling rapidly changing times in the country and its unprecedented economic optimism. Dr Getachew Betru, CEO of the Ethiopian Railways Corporation, reveals just what the project – a central link in a vast planned railway network – means to one of the world’s fastest growing economies and its people.

  • American company restructures Cape Vedean airline’s debts

    CAPE VERDE, 2016/01/26 Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) will re-hire US consultancy Brown Rudni to negotiate and restructure the debts of flagship airline Transportes Aéreos de Cabo Verde (TACV). The Boston law firm provided advisory services to TACV a the end of last year to study the company’s restructuring in order to “reduce costs and improve efficiency in management and operations.”

  • High-speed rail to give Kenya economic boost

    KENYA, 2016/01/10 The high-speed rail project, to be completed this year, will give Kenya an economic boost, and join it additional closely for trading with neighboring nations in East Africa, a railway official said on Thursday. Phase one of the construction of the Kenya high-speed Standard Gauge Railway is almost complete, Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina said. Phase two is due to start early this year, he added. The line will run from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa to the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and, once Phase two of the construction of the rail is completed, it will be extended to neighboring Uganda and onward to Rwanda and South Sudan.

  • African airline will pull out of the Lamu route effective next Tuesday

    KENYA, 2016/01/08 Aviation pundits are divided in their opinion over the announcement and reasons given before in the week that an African airline will pull out of the Lamu route effective next Tuesday. Initial mention of this move was by presently made weeks ago and reported here the same day, at the same time as the airline’s management complained about being forced to operate with half loads into the Lamu aerodrome due to insufficient runway length. While, as seen by this correspondent in November last year during a stopover at Lamu, the runway has been extended by the Kenya Airport Authority, the owners and operators of the aerodrome, it appears that the extension has from presently on to be cleared by Kenya’s aviation regulators, leaving it not ready for use by Jambojet’s larger aircraft.

  • East Africa: The Expense Of The SGR And Related Implications

    KENYA, 2015/12/17 It is presently well known that the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is being developed under the leadership of the Kenyan government and will connect Mombasa to Malaba (with a branch line to Kisumu) onward to Kampala, Kigali (with a branch line to Kasese) and Juba (with a branch line to Pakwach). What is as well well known is that Ethiopia is developing Ethiopia Rail (ER) which will link Addis Ababa to Djibouti. The importance of the SGR to Kenya is, yes, the potential dividend that will arise from bolstering infrastructure in the country; indeed the government expects the project to reduce freight costs from $0.20 per tn/km to $0.08 per tn/km. But importance as well lies in the fact that the SGR is expensive. Indeed, last week Treasury made the point that the SGR has caused an upwards revision of the fiscal deficit from the initial 7.4% of GDP to 12.2%. So is the approach towards the construction of the SGR the majority cost effective possible? A comparison with the ER would be useful. As early as 2013, experts raised questions about the costing of Kenya’s SGR; Kenya is being charged $6.6 million per kilometer compared to $4.9 million per kilometre for Ethiopia’s ER. This is particularly a concern because, as experts have pointed out, there are no major rivers or lakes or large hills to justify the high cost of the SGR. In addition, parts of the ER will be a double track, not a single track as the SGR will be in its entirety.

  • Ryanair flies to the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel

    ISRAEL, 2015/12/16 Ryanair could benefit from an expected increase in the number of Russian and Eastern European tourists travelling to sun holidays in Israel as a result of geo-political instability. Turkey and Egypt are entirely off-limits for Russian tourists particularly next the downing of a Russian commercial jet in Egypt, and tensions next a Russian military jet was shot down by Turkish forces last month. About 3.3 million Russians visited Turkey last year, and 2.6 million Russians visited Egypt. Over 500,000 visited Israel.

  • Ethiopian to Order More Airbus Aircraft

    ETHIOPIA, 2015/12/15 Ethiopian Airlines is planning to order additional Airbus A350-900 aircraft in the coming years, it was learnt. Ethiopian placed firm orders for 14 A350-900 aircraft to be delivered between 2016-2019. The initial two which are leased from IFLC (presently Air Cap) will be delivered to Ethiopian in May and June 2016. The remaining 12 due bought from Airbus will be delivered between 2017-2019. The A350-900 test flight aircraft (MSN2) with carbon livery arrived in Addis Ababa on Wednesday for a demonstration flight. The aircraft conducted a one hour demonstration flight to the South East of Addis Ababa. Workneh Gebeyehu, Minister of Transport, ambassadors, executives of Ethiopian Airlines and other invited guests visited the additional wide body aircraft with a seat capacity of 350. Ethiopian is the initial airline in Africa to order the jetliner in 2009.

  • South Africa: Safety Body Releases Report On Prasa's Afro 4000 Locomotives

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2015/12/15 A statement into the controversial Afro 4000 locomotives has confirmed that they are at times too high for South Africa's railway network, but shows they can still operate without causing any safety issues. The Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) published its statement this week into the 13 locomotives imported from Spain by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) for R600m. The statement says that with the "exception of locomotive height limitations in certain areas of the network and subject to the highlighted conditions in this statement, the Prasa Afro 4000 series locomotives possess acceptable performance capabilities to operate in the South African network". Prasa was planning to buy 20 diesel Afro 4000 locomotives, plus an extra 50 hybrid ones from Vossloh Espana, for a total of R3.5bn.
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