Fastjet chooses Airbus A319s for new low-cost African airline

By AGENCIES

FASTJET has chosen the Airbus A319 to launch its low cost African airline.

Last month Lonrho Plc‚ the industrial company with major interests in Africa‚ said it would list its aviation division on the London Stock Exchange and create Fastjet‚ an African low-cost airline‚ in conjunction with Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and EasyGroup.

The group sold its aviation business‚ Lonrho Aviation‚ to Rubicon Diversified Investments‚ an investment company listed on London’s AIM exchange‚ for US$85.7m.

The first aircraft is expected to carry passengers by October. FastJet will operate under a brand licence agreement with EasyGroup Holdings and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of leading low-cost airline easyJet, it was announced on Tuesday.

Commenting on the announcement, Rubicon CE Ed Winter, said: “The decision to launch FastJet with the Airbus A319 enables us to expand rapidly, with each aircraft potentially carrying around 250,000 passengers a year. Rubicon expects passenger numbers to double from current levels within six months of the introduction of the A319 fleet.

“We plan to add at least five leased Airbus A319 aircraft to the fleet within six months of launch and up to 15 within a year.”

John Leahy, Airbus chief commercial officer customers, said FastJet would open up low-cost travel to the African market.

The Airbus A319 has proven itself an ideal aircraft for the low-cost airline model in other parts of the world. The 156-seat A319 was chosen after an extensive evaluation of a wide range of options and is ideally suited to the company’s expansion plans. Leasing aircraft on operating leases enables the airline to match its rate of growth closely to market requirements.

David Lenigas, executive chairman of Rubicon and of Lonrho, said FastJet had already stated its intent to raise the bar on air safety in Africa by operating its aircraft under the same strict rules that apply to European carriers.

“To this end, we expect to sign an agreement with a major European MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) company for the maintenance of its new A319 fleet in the coming months.

“Our management team has been actively engaged in detailed discussions with a number of governments to lobby for incentives and reduced passenger taxes, factors that will affect our final decision on where to deploy the first A319s,” Lenigas said.