Charter Broker Vertis says AFRICA IS NOW 'ON THE MAP'

Last week at EBACE Swiss charter broker Vertis Aviation CEO Jeffrey Emmenis said Africa remains an important part of the business of, which saw its best-ever year in 2022. Several factors drove the company's increased business, he said, including the number of customers traveling for leisure. "That was very big for us," Emmenis noted "Customers on the business side, particularly in Africa, flying to more remote locations. We look after a number of heads of state and there was a lot of travel as governments started opening up and doing business. I see a little bit of softening in 2023, but it will still be quite impressive."

He said Africa is now on the map,' as the recent visits of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Johannesburg made clear. Attention to Africa from the US is increasing, Emmenis believes, with significant investment coming in. "Africa is really front and center at the moment in the world. This can only do the continent good."

Emmenis does not like to use the term 'private aviation' with regard to Africa because he does not consider the travel mode a luxury on the continent. "I consider our industry a necessity," he said, "because of the infrastructure and connectivity challenges. If you are in Ghana and you want to fly commercially to another part of western Africa, occasionally you have to travel over Addis Ababa, which is several hours in the other direction, just to turn back to get to where you need to be. When you see captains of industry and mining giants doing that, it is not efficient."

Emmenis agrees that the traditional centres of business aviation in Africa, like South Africa, Nigeria, and Morocco, remain strong, but he identifies other growth areas, including southern and central Africa. "If you look at Cote d'Ivoire, that is quite mature," he said, "as is South Africa, but actually we are seeing more interest in equatorial Africa, for example, in the Congo, Gabon and Zambia. There are now some newer types of aircraft in Cameroon," Emmenis added. "It really is around this commodity belt. Cameroon; cocoa, cobalt, gold, copper. Now there has been a large oil and gas find in Mozambique and of course off the coast of Namibia, as well.

Vertis's business model revolves around one-off charters, aircraft leases and whole aircraft acquisitions to its charter management programme. Customers can buy an airplane from Vertis and place it on charter; Vertis then supports the commercial aspects of the airplane while it is in its operation.