Needless to say the existence of many routes operating in and out of Africa are steeped in historical ties – Air France for instance is very strong in West Africa. However, such historical ties are only a small factor in the broader picture. The formation of global airline alliances, armed conflicts, the discovery of natural resources and a host of other factors make the picture far more complex.

If we compare the footprints of the alliances side-by-side we can see that the Star Alliance has the broadest reach. Notice in particular how the major centers that dot the coast of the continent are well served.

Not far behind the Star Alliance is SkyTeam. Air France and KLM’s long history in Africa coupled with Kenya Airways’ growth and success are the major factors behind this second place.

This leaves OneWorld in third but not by much.

Let’s not ignore non-alliance players. The collective presence Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad put forward is no longer negligible. You might argue that the gulf trio only affords three non-stop destinations outside Africa – Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi – but I would argue that one-stops at the right price are just as good or better than direct services.

With Ethiopian set to join the Star Alliance shortly, the list of African carriers ready to be rolled into major alliances drops to zero – either for lack of quality or lack of size. A lack of carriers however does not mean a lack a opportunities. The difference now is that anyone who wants a piece of the action will have to really put some skin in the game, not simply agree to a codeshare. Brussels Airlines is already doing this by setting up an operation in Lubumbashi (to be called Korongo) but they will not be the last. Numerous European and Middle Eastern carriers have half an eye on such joint ventures as do the new darlings of African politicians - the Chinese and the Indians.

KLM MD11 ship PH-KCI “Mother Theresa” by Pieter van Marion

Today is International Women’s Day so I felt it to be an appropriate time to talk about the ladies of KLM. If you came by this post expecting to find a gallery of Dutch flight attendants strutting their stuff in KLM blue you are going to be at least partially disappointed. Disappointed because this post is in fact about KLM’s fleet of ten MD11s – each of which carries the name of a famous woman. The (clickable) ladies are:

 
That’s a very diverse list of incredible women; scientists, humanitarians, educators, writers, actresses, a singer and – of course – an aviatrix. This naming convention was adopted when the MD11 entered the fleet; when they were a point of pride in the KLM organization. These days the MD11 is mainly relegated to flying low yielding tourist destinations.  Chances are excellent that this assignment will not change for the remainder of their service as the ladies are very much in the twilight of their KLM careers. KLM CEO Peter Hartman recently stated that he expects the MD11 to be out of the picture by 2015. When that comes to pass I really hope KLM elects to name at least a few of their new frames after famous women. To the best of my knowledge no other carrier in the world has a fleet (or sub-fleet) named entirely for women and it would be a shame for KLM to not cover at least some of the void that the phase-out will have created.

The observant amongst you will have noticed that there is a gap in the sequence, there’s no PH-KCJ. There’s a good reason for this. KLM reserves the letter J for desktop models and images used in PR exercises. Talk about an airline that pays attention to detail! This no J rule applies across the entire KL fleet although there have been exceptions in the past.

The MD11 schedule for the S10 is as follows (Source: airlineroute.net/GDS). With Finnair’s MD11 fleet put out to pasture recently they (MD11s) are becoming a rarer and rarer sight. Catch these ladies while you can!