North-West Africa as an aviation hub between Europe and Latin America

[Coliandro]

Hi,
I was thinking the other day...in the last few years Dubai and Abu Dhabi have become important hubs for air travel between Europe and India/South-East Asia/Australia...increasing the possibilities to travel between those areas (even if this involves a stop-over), and making these small Middle-Eastern countries richer (not only thanks to this...but also).

What if...the North-Western African countries were better managed than now, and would try to become an hub for travel between Europe and Latin America? At the moment travelling to South America from Europe is long and expensive, even when using Madrid as hub, but with a stop-over somewhere on the North-West coast of Africa, it could become cheaper and more frequent.

What do you think? Of course the current political and economical situation in many North-Western African countries makes this a dream...but even Dubai and Abu Dhabi were poor countries in the past.

Also Central Asian countries could try to establish themselves as hubs for air travel between Europe and the Far East...but as with Africa, these countries at the moment are so corrupted that make Greece look like a model of good governance.

[ian16th]

You mean like Dakar?

Someone had that idea!

[Zebiak]

However, while Madrid has it's own problems, why couldn't the Euro>><<LATAM hub lie somewhere else in Spain? Spain is still in the EU and the cultural link is unmatched.

[ChickenHouse]

The current pan-African infrastructure initiative already addresses this, for roads, Autobahna an airports. With new hubs, like the new Senegalese Aéroport International Blaise Diagne, DKR, (run by Daport, a daughter of Fraport, guess why ...), there is a lot going on in Africa.

[InnosonIVM]

Nigeria's present economic trajectory makes it inevitable that said hub will be Lagos or Abuja. There is already an ongoing Aerotropolis programme going on nationwide. New terminals and runways being constructed in 6 airports concurrently to be completed this year.

[Zebiak]

You're right that Lagos or Abuja would be a good fit IF they had vastly improved airports. Can you please provide detail on the active and near-term projects in Nigeria?

[linkebungu]

Sure Europe to South America is long, but Europe to Oceana is an entirely different beast. Not really comparable flights, that's why you get the stop over.

[four engine jock]

Nigeria?????? Please

[Capetonian]

You're right that Lagos or Abuja would be a good fit IF they had vastly improved airportsLet's put that down as the understatement of the year ......... no ........ century.

Apart from anything else, it's not going to happen unless there's a fundamental change of mentality in that part of the world ..... in other words ... it's not going to happen.

[four engine jock]

I Agree with Capetonian!! Never going to happen in Nigeria!!!

[Zebiak]

I deserve the knocks and agree it is pretty crazy to think that the Nigerians will pull their heads out of their backsides.

In my defense, I was responding to the comment by InnosonIVM that there are major projects underway at 6 airports in Nigeria. I am just curious and want to know what those projects are. Can anyone shed light on what Nigeria is doing to improve their airport infrastructure?

[InnosonIVM]

Nigerian Aviation News - Page 24 - SkyscraperCity (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=720826&page=24)

You might want to go through that thread.

A lot of you just have a big bone stuck in your throat regarding a Black African country transitioning into a global player. It was the exact same kind of attitude 30-something years ago regarding China - oh it could never possibly happen. Then it did. And many of you are still struggling to deny it in the face of all evidence.
If an economy worth just over $100bn 15 years ago is touching $550bn today and is the number one destination for investment on an entire continent, what story does that tell?

But as usual it's so much more comfortable to do that European thing of seeing and hearing nothing which conflicts with your delusional supremacist worldview.

[abby001]

Well I'm not european, and I don't just THINK of black africa ,as you say it, like lot's of guys around who never spent an hour there, I spent 10 years in African soil, and half of it was in west, black africa!!
The fact is it's never gonna happen in places like Nigeria for one simple reason, mentality of people need to change and also the condition of the country needs to change, specially in terms of safety! Yeah Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc were quiet nothing before some rich people from US, Europe and some neighboring countries started investing there, but then they made it somehow that when you step into Dubai, you rarely see locals! mot people are outsiders and they need to obey the rules! In Africa that doesn't happen! They never let anyone to come and start changing their countries (for their own freaking benefits!) let alone start obeying rules made by those people!
You better start seeing things like they are, not like you want to see them!

[abby001]

@Coliandro:
Brilliant Idea, but it needs a lot of money to start that!
Look I think it's best if someone could get a big flat area in northwest Africa and start building an airport, which then would gather some people to start small businesses around and eventually a town would be built with people from around the world investing there! That's more or less how Dubai and some other towns became what they are now!
The question is who has that much of money to go buy a very big area in a dessert or somewhere flat, build an airport and still have enough money to buy couple of planes to start its services and survive for -at very best- a year with no income out of all this investment!!
And one more thing that just hit me now is, what's the demand for flights to South America and northwest Africa in the Europe!

[Capetonian]

A lot of you just have a big bone stuck in your throat regarding a Black African country transitioning into a global player..........And many of you are still struggling to deny it in the face of all evidence.
If an economy worth just over $100bn 15 years ago is touching $550bn today and is the number one destination for investment on an entire continent, what story does that tell?

But as usual it's so much more comfortable to do that European thing of seeing and hearing nothing which conflicts with your delusional supremacist worldview. It's called realism based on observation. I have spent most of my life on the African continent, working in aviation, including, unfortunately, some trips to Nigeria. There are fundamental problems in the way people think and act there which mitigate against ever running a successful, profitable, and safe airline based there. You would do well to achieve two out of those three criteria. The history of failed or unsafe Nigerian airlines is there as proof.
The size of the economy is irrelevant.

[B200Drvr]

There is no need for a Hub in West Africa, most airliners flying from Europe can make it to South America non stop. I flew the G550 from Buenos Aires to London non stop. Middle East airlines can make it non stop to the USA and the great circle route does not go over West Africa. The only people that might make use of it are the Russians and Chinese. Just don't think its feasible!!
Furthermore, the weather in West Africa is not stable enough for year round, safe, punctual operations.

[Trim Stab]

The reason the Middle East developed into such a large hub for Europe-Asia operations is their plentiful, reliable and cheap supply of aviation fuel.

Whilst Nigeria has plenty of crude oil, it doesn't have plentiful, reliable and cheap aviation fuel - for the reasons alluded to by Capetonian.

I agree with Capetonian also about aviation in Nigeria (I work there) - it is staggeringly backward and bureaucratic and there is no appetite here to make it better. It is not possible even to file online flight plans - the procedure is queue up once for an invoice, queue up again to pay ($US200) and get a receipt, queue up again to hand in the flight plan to the AIS office, pay again for them to make photocopies of the receipt - then thereafter nothing happens. Radio up the tower and they will not have the flight plan. Thereafter, en route nobody has a copy so you have to give every controller all your flight plan details (type of aircraft, departure, destination, persons on board, endurance etc). If you try to suggest how to make it better, they will accuse you of being an arrogant Oyibo and that is not the way we do things in Nigeria.