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| Susan Mashibe started Via Aviation in 2003 with $20,000 in funding to offer private jets in her native Tanzania, services common in more developed markets. |
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania—Susan Mashibe left her
native Tanzania at age 19 to fly jetliners in the U.S. But after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she returned home to help reshape
African private air travel.
Today her company, Via Aviation, services clients including oil
billionaires and top governments officials. It is one of very few in
Africa that support business jets with necessities such as catering and
hangar space. In another rarity for the continent, Via accepts credit
cards.
Africa, which is larger than the U.S. and China combined, has a tiny
fraction of their air connections. A flight between Senegal and Ghana,
roughly the same distance as New York to Miami, can cost $1,200 and
involve stops in two other countries. The only connections between
Tunisia and Kenya entail routings through Europe or the Middle East that
almost double the trip distance.
That lack of quick, affordable connections is starting to squeeze
Africa's expanding economy. In response, more executives and rich
Africans are turning to pricey business jets.
"It's an essential business tool," says Tony Elumelu, a Nigerian
investor who recently flew from Nigeria to Tanzania via Rwanda and back
on a corporate jet to avoid flying through Europe. "If you spend 24
hours or 36 hours going from one country to another, the monetary cost
is much more than the cost of the private aircraft."
The number of private planes based, operated and owned in Africa has
risen 20% from five years ago, according to aviation research firm
JetNet LLC. Canada's Bombardier Inc. projects that Africa's business jet
fleet will more than double by 2032, to about 960 planes.
But African airports' lack of basic ground services complicates
getting around, even on a private jet. GainJet Aviation SA, a Greek
airplane charter firm that flies around Africa, flew a head of state to
central African two years ago and landed with a load of dirty
dishes—only to learn the airport lacked catering or washing facilities.
"The crew actually sat on the tarmac all night cleaning the dishes in
buckets of water," said Andrew Hallak, head of marketing at GainJet. He
declined to name the client or the country.
That's where Ms. Mashibe's company fits in. Such firms, known as
fixed-base operators, are common in developed countries but just
emerging in Africa. Evergreen Apple Nigeria Ltd., launched in 2011,
offers fueling services, maintenance and even conference rooms with
plasma televisions that can handle video conferences.
The base operators support expanding ranks of airplane-charter
companies. GainJet says it will meet rising demand for intra-African
flights by opening its first African office this year, in Rwanda.
Angola's BestFly Flight Support launched that country's first charter
jet service last year.
When Ms. Mashibe got started a decade ago, Africa barely registered in global aviation.
In the summer of 2001, she had just received her pilot's license and
was applying at Delta Air Lines Inc. Then came Sept. 11. She abandoned
efforts to get a U.S. work permit and, with $20,000 in funding, decided
instead to replicate an American fixed-base operation in Tanzania.
Her first move to set the company apart: accepting credit cards,
including specialty cards designed for fuel purchases. Previously,
anyone flying a private plane in Tanzania had to pay for fuel in advance
or carry cash exceeding $20,000.
Thanks to one of the fuel cards, Ms. Mashibe landed her first
customer, South Africa's then-Vice President Jacob Zuma. When Mr. Zuma's
entourage arrived in Tanzania, they received fuel, a flight plan and
weather reports.
"They were so surprised that they took me under their wing and told
me what else I could do," Ms. Mashibe said. South African officials
didn't respond to requests for comment on the episode.
Via Aviation is now approaching $1 million in annual revenue and has
been profitable seven of the past nine years, Ms. Mashibe said. But the
company has faced turbulence along the way, she said.
Airport officials in Dar es Salaam hinted that "facilitation fees"
would help her company get started and customers have requested receipts
for more than they paid, Ms. Mashibe said. Refusing to pay bribes made
life tougher. Airport officials blocked planes she had serviced from the
hangar and banned her customers from the airport's VIP immigration
line, she said.
"If an American had to put up with the things I had to put up with,
they would have given up," Ms. Mashibe said. She said she fought back by
flooding airport authorities with fax and email complaints.
The head of the Tanzania airports authority, S.S. Suleiman, said he
wasn't aware of Ms. Mashibe's allegations. "It's a big, big place," he
said of the airport.
Eventually Tanzanian officials let fixed-base operators send their
passengers through a separate immigration queue and buy fuel supplies
from other than a state monopoly.
The director general of Tanzania's civil aviation authority, Fadhili
Manongi, said the authority had updated regulations to allow more
competition and improve the airport functioning, but this wasn't
specifically due to Ms. Mashibe's persistence.
"When we change anything, we invite all stakeholders, including Ms. Mashibe, to give their views," Mr. Manongi said.
Ms. Mashibe's efforts have gotten noticed. Initiative for Global
Development, a nonprofit group run by former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania
Mark Green, selected Ms. Mashibe as one of its "emerging leader
fellows" in recognition of her work to boost African business.
The African Business Aviation Association, a one-year-old trade group
for private aircraft operators, is meanwhile encouraging other African
countries to follow Tanzania's liberalization.
"It's an exercise in patience," said association head Rady Fahmy.
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