In recent years, Air France has lost ground in Africa vis-à-vis Chinese and Turkish companies in particular. However, since independence, Paris has done everything to ensure that its national company remains hegemonic on the continent.
March 28, 1961. Eleven French-speaking African countries, which realized that they lacked the means to launch their own national airlines, unite to create Air Afrique. Each country then holds a little more than 6,5% of the company's capital, the remaining third being owned by Sodetraf, a French company belonging to the Air Transport Union (UTA) and Air France. But in November 2001, after four decades of flights, Air Afrique disappeared. The transnational company, on a drip for several years, does not survive September 11. In fact, everyone in the airline industry is experiencing difficulties: Swissair is leaving French-speaking Africa, while the Belgian company Sabena is experiencing some difficulties.
At the start of 2002, Air France found itself in a virtual monopoly. "In January 2002, its prices had climbed to more than 1 euros for a Paris-Ouagadougou in eco class", explained Maurice Freund fifteen years ago, the founder of Point-Afrique, the charter pioneer. The price of Air France to Africa will eventually drop, but the French company will refuse to make amends and will ensure that it has not tried to take advantage of its position to derive maximum profit.
Air Afrique or how Paris got its hands on the African sky
In the magazine Alternatives internationales, Maurice Freund recounted the difficulty he had faced with Air France in launching a company offering low-cost travel from France to African capitals. It must be said that Point-Afrique proposed to reinvest its profits in the countries in which it operated, far from the commercial and mercantile strategy of Air France. The French company urges its partners, such as Air Ivoire in Abidjan, to block the road to new companies eyeing up its backyard. Because the situation of quasi monopoly arranges the Parisian company, which can thus adjust its own tariffs.
In the 1960s, even when African countries took an initiative, it was tinged with neo-colonialism: Air Afrique, for example, although based in Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, was a company governed by French law. And its laudable objective of helping African states to create their own companies was not without interest for France, which was taking stakes in the various national air transport companies.
How France has carved out the lion's share
Sodetraf was undoubtedly the tool which allowed Air France the most to profit from the financial windfall of the sector: the French airline company, with the UTA, had the blocking minority in Air Afrique. Above all, the allegedly African company leased aircraft to Air France and UTA. At the time of independence, France had promised African countries that they would be sovereign in the choices concerning domestic air transport. But Paris forced them to go through the UTA… A strange conception of sovereignty.
For international flights, Air France had obtained the biggest share of the pie with an “exclusive vocation” to operate flights between France and French-speaking Africa, for at least ten years. With, in addition, the creation of Air Afrique, after the signing of the Yaoundé Treaty, the UTA and Air France had succeeded in retaining control over civil aviation. But for a limited period to say the least. Because in recent decades, Air France has had to fight to maintain its dominant position. And Paris has diversified.
Paris tries to defend its interests
Because it is not only the airlines to keep the hold on the African sky: France, for example, defends its interests within the Agency for the safety of air navigation in Africa and Madagascar (Asecna ). Gold, several states, like Chad and Niger, would see themselves changing the statutes of the regional organization that deals with aviation safety many airports on the continent. According to Africa Intelligence, this change of statutes "would compromise the good management of Asecna and its credibility with international donors". Above all, the regional organization would perhaps take too much distance vis-à-vis Paris.
To show its good faith, Paris left financial control after having seized this post for sixty years. But generally, the attitude of Paris concerning its stranglehold on the African sky begins to annoy. In the midst of the pandemic, Air France had announced flight resumption agendas without consulting the countries concerned, which had misunderstood the airline's official communications. Not to mention the price increases, badly digested by users.
The boom of Turkish and Chinese companies
Enough to leave the door open to other operators. China has been eyeing the African sky for several years. The Asian country has, since the beginning of the 2010s, stepped up its rotations to the continent. In 2015, Johannesburg signed a memorandum of understanding with Beijing. Air China and South African Airways allies, the objective was to let China penetrate the African skies. In ten years, Beijing has multiplied by six the number of passengers transported between China and Africa. Turkey is also an important challenger for Paris. With 53 destinations on the African continent from Istanbul, Turkish Airlines is increasingly nibbling Air France's share. With its new airport, Istanbul wants to become a hub of the sector.
The company Air France is jostled, Paris does not want to lose its influence. But it is clear that French policy concerning the African sky is crumbling. And the attempt of the hexagonal companies to preserve their pre-square in Africa seems to be illusory today, so much the new actors of the sector knock on the door. In the meantime, Air France has decided to focus on its cargo activities, a segment left free by many other companies during the health crisis.