Southern Africas struggling national carriers are increasingly turning to foreign aviation consultants to assist with restructuring efforts in recent months. However, experts say this costly option often fails to deliver sustainable results.
African airlines that have sought external advisory services include Air Botswana, Air Zimbabwe, LAM Mozambique Airlines, Air Mauritius and Madagascar Airlines.
These advisories or restructuring plans often focus on restoring viability through measures like staff reductions, cost cutting, improvement in efficiencies and sometimes revision of network and fleet in order to better match capacity to demand, explains Joachim Vermooten , aviation economist and chartered accountant.
However, many times such entities will continue with the same practices that landed it in financial difficulties, hoping that a different outcome will materialise. This is especially the case where the persons responsible for implementation were not involved in nor fully committed to the development of the restructuring plan, said Vermooten.
Many of the regions national carriers are fully or partially state-owned, with boards and executive leadership often filled through political appointments. According to Vermooten, these appointees sometimes offer limited applicable industry experience.