Africaone Deserves Support

A NEW airline was launched yesterday when Africa One arrived at Entebbe.

A NEW airline was launched yesterday when Africa One arrived at Entebbe.Ugandan, Tanzanian and Nigerian investors own AfricaOne and its chairman is Capt Joe Roy who also owns DAS Air Cargo.DAS bought out the Uganda government's shares in the now defunct Alliance Air while Infra Investments bought out the Tanzanian government's shares. DAS and Infra are now trying to buy out the remaining 40% of Alliance shares held by Transnet of South Africa.This will repair the damage caused by the disastrous decision by Parliament to block the sale of Uganda Airlines to South African Airways. This stopped Entebbe from developing as a regional hub and deprived Ugandans of multiple international connections without routing through Nairobi.Now AfricaOne is again opening up that possibility of Entebbe becoming a regional hub. Of course AfricaOne does not have the resources of South African Airways but nevertheless in the long run it has the potential to become a dynamic regional and continental airline. In particular there are great opportunities on the Nairobi route where flights are expensive and inconveniently scheduled. New airlines can come in and tackle the established majors as the highly profitable Ryan Air has shown in Europe. It has grown rapidly by providing economical no-frills services to regional destinations all over Europe.Capt Roy's DAS Air Cargo is already the most successful airfreight company flying out of the UK to Africa and the Middle East. It is wonderful that Captain Roy and his fellow investors are now bringing a new passenger airline to East Africa. He deserves all our support. We wish him every success.Ends