Reuters Newswire is reporting that the South Sudanese Government is looking for an "international company" to enter into a potential private/public joint venture for the running of a new South Sudanese national carrier.
The government plans to retain a minority 20% stake in the
airline, and will sell 31% to the domestic South Sudanese private sector with the remaining 49% being sold to international investors.
"We're going to develop a public-private partnership in
order to establish a South Sudan airline ... It will be run
commercially by an international, reputable company," Deputy
Minister of Transport Mayom Kuoc Malek said in an interview. "This project is a priority because as a landlocked country
we need to reach the outside world, and the best way to reach
the outside world is to have an aviation industry which is
efficient," he said.
Since its cessation from the North (referred to as 'Sudan')
last year in July, Africa's newest nation has been without a dedicated national
air service, notwithstanding the numerous private operators who ply various
routes to landing strips & aerodromes that dot the country. Herein lies a greater problem: that of inadequate infrastructure.
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| Juba Airport in May 2012 (UR-SDV) |
Built in the 1940s,
Juba International Airport originally planned to have its upgrade completed by Independence Day of last year; a tall order consisting of: the expansion of the passenger and cargo terminal buildings, resurfacing of
the runway and installation of landing lights to facilitate night
operations. Additionally, there were to be have
been upgrades to five state airstrips in Yambio, Torit, Kwajok, Bor and
Awiel, implemented by the World Food Programme. When the day came and passed without much being done, it was assumed that this would become another lost cause.
However, following a cabinet meeting in mid August, South Sudan's Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin declared that the renovation and improvement works were back on following the successful negotiation of the loan with China, which would see South Sudan paying it back over 20 years at 2% interest.
"It will include extensions, it will include the car parks, it will
include the lighting system. It will include the ability for the airport
to be functioning for 24 hours," he said .
As is often the case in Chinese underwritten loans, Chinese contractors must necessarily be employed, though at the time of this writing, the contractor is still not known.
Presently, South Sudan's aviation market is dominated by airlines from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan making the process of flying intra-nationally very expensive and time consuming - a problem not uncommon in Central Africa, though with South Sudan's vast oil reserves and ideal geographical positioning, it has the potential to become a regional aviation power, should politics be kept out of the game.
Bucking the ongoing trend amongst European carriers of reducing their frequencies to the Indian Ocean island, Dubai based mega-carrier, Emirates (EK), has announced an increase in its weekly frequencies from 11x weekly to 12x weekly from 28 October 2012, with the route going 14x weekly from 28 November 2012.
