Kales Services ECAir

Newcomer ECAir of the Republic of Congo is only a small catch in the net of GSA Kales compared with mandate airlines like American Airlines, Egyptair or China Southern, to name just a few out of Kales’ more than 90 customers comprising portfolio.
Although ECAir operates at this stage of its development just a minor fleet of six aircraft, it is a client with a positive outlook for Kales. This because of three main reasons: the further growth of the fleet, the Congolese carrier’s rapidly spreading network and ECAir’s clear goal to maintain its high operational and service quality, thereby distinguishing itself clearly from most of its African competitors.

New routes
Incepted only in 2011, ECAir lately opened up a number of new domestic and regional routes and intends to further penetrate into the West and Central African region in the coming months. There, line-haul flights have already begun or will be commenced soon to seven additional airports, among them heavyweights like Lagos in Nigeria, Angola’s Luanda or Dakar in the state of Senegal.
Further to this, a new intercontinental service linking Brazzaville with Beirut in the Levant is part of the expansion plan. It would add to the two out of Africa flights ECAir is already offering, connecting its Congolese home base Maya-Maya Airport with Dubai and Paris Charles de Gaulle airport respectively. Both flights have just been upgraded from 3/7 to daily operation enabled by the addition of a second Boeing 676-300 to the carrier’s fleet.

Fleet plans
Currently, ECAir’s fleet consists of two Boeing 737-300s and two 737-700s, both for covering intra African routes. These narrow bodies are complemented by two larger Boeing 767-300s for long-haul flights connecting Brazzaville with Paris and Dubai, with the second 67-300 having arrived at Maya-Maya Airport just three weeks ago on 23 January.
Further, two Boeing 787 “Dreamliners” have been ordered which are expected to come into service in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In addition, the airline is looking for two more 737s to strengthen its regional and domestic network.

Prime quality carrier
Although transporting passengers is ECAir’s key objective, air freight plays also an important role in the carrier’s expansion strategy, developing into a main contributor to the bottom line. This is clearly underscored by the management’s decision to award a GSA contract to Kales Airline Services, giving the Dutch sales agent full control over the cargo capacity on board ECAir’s entire fleet. This is still quite limited but might grow faster than expected if the airline will adhere consistently to it chosen course of becoming one of Africa’s prime quality carriers.
In 2014, the Republic of Congo’s national carrier that employs nearly 500 staff, transported 360,000 travelers. This year, their numbers are expected to increase double-digit. Cargo figures have not been made public up to this date. Under Kales’ influence this will hopefully change soon.

Heiner Siegmund