DIG/ March 12th 2024the State, through the holding company Fly Gabon Holding, carried out a shareholding operation up to 56%, within the Gabonese airline Afrijet.
Are Fly Gabon and Afrijet 2 separate companies or now one? alone and same entity united under a single trade name?
Asked by the daily newspaper L’Unionthe general director of Fly Gabon, Nyl Moret-Mba gives important details on the new entity.
But above all on the influence and role of the State in the governance of the new company.
“The Gabonese Republic has innovated in the way the national airline is created. Rather than repeating the mistakes of other African states, by creating a state structure ex nihilo, managed without control of the sector, the Gabonese Republic first set up a participation vehicle called Fly Gabon Holding headed by Linda Mandji, which took a 56% stake in the Gabonese private airline Afrijet. The strategic objective is to combine the power of a state and the agility and entrepreneurial spirit that made Afrijet successful.
This involves building the national flag on an existing operational tool, which has shown its seriousness and solidity for 19 years and which has in its ranks an immense majority of Gabonese men and women. Afrijet operates to the highest international aviation safety standard (IOSA) and we will rely on this asset. The company must remain profitable and financially healthy, to continue its growth with the support of its new majority shareholder.
Since all air carrier approvals are in the name of Afrijet, the company will keep its name at least until the third quarter of 2025, before being renamed Fly Gabon. At that time, it will renew its approvals with its new name, while retaining the IATA code J7. It is, in fact, a long marketing project to make the new Fly Gabon brand known outside the country. We must operate a smooth transition, retain our customers and make the new brand benefit from the recognized qualities of the first brand throughout the sub-region. It is the principle of “one operator, two brands” that will last for the duration of a transition”, indicated Nyl Moret-Mba.
What influence will the State have in the management of the new company?
“The future Fly Gabon is a private company. We have the genes, we keep the freedom to undertake. To call this into question would be to create the conditions for failure.
On the other hand, it is now a national company, so it must at the same time serve the interests of the nation and contribute to the well-being of the Gabonese people. It is this search for the right balance that led us to transform Afrijet into a public limited company with a General Manager and Board of Directors.
The Council is the governance body where public and private sensitivities, expertise in the air sector and knowledge of the country’s challenges are represented. It will integrate the nation’s needs in terms of air transport into its decisions and will aim to align the interests of the company with those of the Gabonese Republic, without affecting its economic performance. The General Management is a force for proposals and then, after arbitration, implements the strategic choices decided by the Council.
This is a modern mode of governance, which we needed. The State does not therefore intervene directly in the management of the company, this model has shown its weaknesses on many occasions and we wanted to learn from the lessons of the past,” I explained Nyl-Moret Mba.
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2024-07-28 08:46:31