The Administrative functions of the Economic and Finance Committee will be undertaken by the Finance Oversight Committee. Membership will consist of 4 representatives elected from among the Chief Financial Officers of AFRAA Member Airlines and will meet twice a year.

The Finance Oversight Committee will act as an advisor to the Executive Committee and the Secretary General on all financial matters relating to the Association and will have the following specific responsibilities to:

(i) Review the annual budgets, statements of accounts and internal and external audit reports of the Association.
(ii) Select and recommend to the Executive Committee the appointment of External Auditors.
(iii) Conduct internal audit of the Association.
(iv) Review the financial policies and procedures from time to time and recommend changes as necessary to ensure transparency and accountability.
(v) Review and recommend membership contributions, partnership fees or any fees and charges payable.

In line with the new strategic direction of AFRAA and in an effort to facilitate beneficial cooperation among member airlines, this Task Force was set-up in June 2011 to evaluate the feasibility and viability of establishing a Joint Customer Contact Centre to compliment the sales and communication efforts of airlines. The Task Force is expected to complete its task by December 2011.

Objective of the Project

The objective of this project is to determine to cost-effectiveness, practicality and sustainability of setting-up and managing a Joint Contact Centre to complement airlines' sales and information dissemination function on 24/7, 365 days. Where a business case is established, a Steering Committee will set-up and manage the Centre on behalf of participating airlines.

Benefits of Project to Participating Airlines

• Provision of 24/7 customer contact and sales support
• Lower initial set-up cost per airline
• Lower operating cost per airline since infrastructure and administrative costs will be shared
• Opportunity to generate additional sales from off-business hours
• Timely communication to passengers/clients anytime the need arises – flight disruptions, schedule change, etc
• Wider market coverage and timely online interaction with clients
• Competitive edge over airlines without Contact Centres

Project Consultant

SITA has kindly offered to be the Consultant for this project. SITA has excellent information communications technology experience, expertise and industry knowledge and will bring this to assist the Task Force.

Proposed Airlines on the Task Force

Air Botswana
Air Ivoire
Air Mali
Air Malawi
Air Namibia
Air Nigeria
Air Zimbabwe
ASKY Airlines
LAM-Mozambique Airlines
Precision Air
Rwandair
Sudan Airways
Toumai Air Tchad

The objective of the MRO Task Force is to explore the feasibility of joint pooling of inventory, collective purchase of certain items and optimal use of MRO facilities. The Task Force will also identify MRO organisations willing to cooperate and have identified a possible technical partner.

Members of the Task Force met in April 2011 and among the priority tasks was for the Secretariat to market African MROs. In this regard, it was agreed that the world class organisations be listed on the AFRAA website. This has been completed and all EASA/FAA certified African MRO organisations can easily be accessed through a link on the website which also shows the contact details of the key contact personnel for the organisations.

The MRO organisations featured here are Air Algerie Technics, EgyptAir Maintenance and Engineering, Ethiopian Airlines, Libyan Aircraft Engineering and Maintenance, Royal Air Maroc, South African Airways Technical, Snecma Engine Services and Tunisair Technics. The web link is www.afraa.org home page clearly shown under MROs so that just one click displays the contact details of the organisations. The organisations will be published in the AFRAA Annual Reports and the activities now regularly feature in AFRAA monthly newsletters.

The following airlines are members of the MRO Task Force:

a. TAAG Angola
b. Air Mauritius
c. EgyptAir
d. Kenya Airways
e. South African Airways Technical

The main focus of the Task Force is to facilitate cooperation among African MROs for the purpose of reducing costs and marketing the MROs to encourage patronage particularly by airlines on the continent.

One main task for the Secretariat has been to include all the FAA/EASA certified MROs on the revamped AFRAA website. This allows visitors to AFRAA website to have direct access to the activities and capabilities of African MROs on a single click. The contact persons and details are also available on the website. MROs are encouraged to update their information and should there be any changes in personnel, to advise the Secretariat immediately so as to update the website.

The Secretariat is compiling the approvals held by the MROs so that they can be able to access areas of synergies and cooperation.

A project of this nature requires assistance from some competent stakeholders. In this regard, Lufthansa Consulting have expressed interest in working with the Task Force and have offered to make a presentation at the next meeting. Members of the Task Force will be kept updated on developments in this area.


Lufthansa Consulting have expressed interest in collaborating with the Task Force by providing their expertise to facilitate the attainment of its objectives.

Airlines face a complex structure of operational costs and charges imposed by various airport and government authorities. Charges imposed by airport and government authorities include, charges for air navigation services, airport charges and government taxes. Collectively, these charges constitute a substantial amount of the cost of the air travel which the airlines’ customers directly pay or the carriers pass over to them.

In Africa it is believed that charges and taxes are even significantly higher in comparison to most other regions. The impact of high taxes and charges coupled with deficient facilities and infrastructure in the region will be significant, as Africa becomes one of the fastest growing traffic in the world.

The lack of credible and sufficient data, the absence of proper regulatory oversight of the monopoly service providers in many countries and the lack of transparency and consultation in the setting up of these taxes and charges have left airlines with very little opportunity to influence the decisions.

In view of the above and in line with AFRAA’s new business plan, taxes and charges will be one of AFRAAs focus area. The main objective in this regard will be to reduce the cost to the member airlines and their customers arising from existing and future excessively high taxes and charges.

Towards this end, AFRAA is establishing a Taxes and Charges Task Force (‘TCTF”) which will study and analysis existing taxes and charges and identify airports where these charges are excessively high and propose effective ways and means of addressing them. The Task Force will also support the Secretariat’s initiatives to collect sufficient data to support the work of the Task Force.

Flights connectivity within Africa remains a challenge and to address this, a Task Force on Network Coordination was set-up in June 2011. Task Force would initially evaluate the practicability and cost-effectiveness of improving flight connectivity among airlines, forging beneficial commercial cooperation, improving aircraft utilisation, increasing flight frequencies and availability and encouraging airlines to work together.

Objectives of the Project

• Coordinate and harmonise flight schedules with the view to proposing alternative cost-effective schedules that will generate increased load factors and revenue
• Improve intra-African connectivity and increase flight frequencies as well as offer flexibility to travellers
• Reduce travel time, minimise passenger layover (hotel accommodation) and assist airlines to realise synergy through collaborative network development
• Encourage cooperation through code-share, interline, Special Pro-rate Agreements (SPAs) and other such commercial arrangements

Benefits of the Project to Participating Airlines

• Airlines' schedules harmonization at various airports to facilitate connectivity and passenger/cargo transfer or exchange
• Traffic/network rationalization and profitability analysis will benefits all participating airlines
• More airlines will interline, codeshare, conduct joint operations or joint utilisation of aircraft
• Reduce passengers transit time and offer competitive service
• Minimize number of transit passengers that are accommodated by airlines
• Lower operating costs, higher load factors and increase revenues
• Stimulate incremental traffic and revenue to airlines because of convenient connections and schedules

Project Consultant

This project will be support through consultancy services to be provided by Sabre Airline Solutions. Sabre Airline Solutions has the data, tools and experience in network coordination, having assisted airline Associations in the Middle East and Latin America to successfully implemented similar projects.

Proposed Airlines on the Task Force

Air Nigeria
EgyptAir
Ethiopian Airlines
Kenya Airways
LAM-Mozambique Airlines
Royal Air Maroc
South African Airways
Tunisair.

Diploma in Airline Safety Management

The applicant must successfully complete the core subject and choose some electives so that the total number of subjects completed and certificates awarded (core and electives) is five.

Electives:

Click here to download the application form

Diploma in Airline Cost Management

The applicant must successfully complete the core subject and choose some electives so that the total number of subjects completed and certificates awarded (core and electives) is five.

Electives:

Click here to download the application form

The applicant must successfully complete the core subject and choose some electives so that the total number of subjects completed and certificates awarded (core and electives) is five.

Electives:

Click here to download the application form

The applicant must successfully complete the core subject and choose some electives so that the total number of subjects completed and certificates awarded (core and electives) is five.

Elective courses:

Click here to download the application form

AFRAA Diploma Programme

Diploma in Airline Management

The applicant must successfully complete the core subject and choose some electives so that the total number of subjects completed and certificates awarded (core and electives) is five.

Electives :

Click here to download the application form