I'm a young aviation enthusiast in Accra. There are a few Ghanaian pilots with CPL MEIR out there who would like to join your airline. The question is, you already have 6 pilots currently in type training, and are launching with only two planes (ERJ145) so is there any room for more pilots at the moment? and how many hours a month on average will a pilot expect to fly.
Yes, we would like to bring on board a second batch of 6 pilots in May after operations start. We are very keen on hearing from young Ghanaian CPL holders so please be in touch.
How many hours a month? Realistically, I can't expect more than 50-55 hrs at most during the initial stages while aircraft utility is still low. Domestic operations are still restricted to daylight hours, so there is only a limited number of sectors to go around. As aircraft utility improves, so will the number of hours available. In recognition of this though, we offer comprehensive monthly salary rather than hourly pay.
Also in terms of operating cost, relative the other start-ups (fly540, starbow, antrak, ctk etc.) isnt the ERJ more expensive to operate over shorter routes? I thought they perform better over longer regional routes because they burn less fuel at altitude than the ATR-72... cant say the same for the 4-engine BAE though.
Excellent question and I'm glad to see it asked here.
Without going into specific details on the numbers (gotta keep some things proprietary!), the ERJ-145 has a unit cost over 50 seats pretty much equivalent to the BAe146 over 90 seats. That also means the trip DOC for the BAe is about 80% higher. The higher capacity of that aircraft though means that they would have to fill almost 60 seats to break even (hypothetically), whereas we would need only 35 seats to break even at the same price point on the same route. Similarly, the ATR72 has a trip cost over 70 seats pretty much equivalent to the ERJ-145 over 50 seats, giving the ATR72 a unit cost advantage of approx. 30-40%. This is not a trivial number and handicaps us somewhat when competing against that aircraft. The Saab340 and ATR42 are within 10-15% of the ERJ-145 on unit costs so these are less of an issue. Cost wise, the advantage is definitely with fly540 and their ATR72.
The benefits the ERJ-145 brings us though is its ability to serve routes that are too far for the ATR and too thin for the BAe. Our choice of name is probably the first clue that Africa World Airlines does not intend to restrict ourself to domestic operations. We have to think further ahead and the ERJ-145 checked the right boxes with regards to availability of airframes and technical expertise, ownership costs, range, payloads, short field performance and all the other issues that have to be considered when making a key decision like this. We believe that the ERJ-145 can serve as an optimal aircraft to open up thin regional markets that have hitherto seen infrequent service as best. The regional yields in West Africa are such that even with a significant yield dilution, there are a number of new markets that the combination of range and capacity makes feasible.
Our stakeholders also made a strong case for jets versus props, both from the perspective of passenger perception (as an example, Starbow's 23-year old BAe146 is viewed more favourably than fly540's brand new ATR72 in market surveys of prospective passengers) as well as with respect to speed. The few minutes of block time savings on each short sector become critical when a reasonable proportion of operations are into airfields with restricted operating hours. It makes the difference between being able to squeeze 3 or 4 rotations out of an aircraft during the operating day, and correspondingly helps to reduce the ownership cost component of the DOCs.
would you use larger jets like the 175 or 190 in the future.
Probably not. I've spent many hours with Embraer sales and marketing teams while they try to make the case to us for the E-Jet family. Unfortunately, the unit cost benefit of the 175/190 is not really significant over its larger Airbus/Boeing counterparts with the mission profile we would use it for and the range benefit of the 175/190 over the 145 is not really beneficial to us with an Accra base. The extra range pretty much allows us to serve a larger swathe of desert, jungle or water depending in which direction you start off. There are no key markets from Accra that the 175/190 opens up that the 145 cannot serve, or that a larger aircraft type would not lend a cost advantage on. When it comes to a second aircraft type for higher capacity and further afield routes, we are instead looking at the 737 and A320 families (at least initially). The C-Series would be our perfect aircraft with regards to the balance of capacity, costs and range, but we're still a few years at least away from that being a reality. In the meanwhile, we like to dream!
