African operations and clientele
We often think about Africa as one, single, huge Country, when in fact is divided in 54 countries within the continent.
Africa is a common destination for the Business Aviation market.
Private Jets fly often to Lagos (Nigeria), Djibouti, Harare (Zimbabwe), South Africa, Morocco, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Kinshasa (Congo).
African market is not an easy one, due to the restrictions and the risks related to war, civil wars, terroristic attacks or general assaults to foreigners.
Often the objective of their attacks is not even the crew itself.
Private Jets engaged in African Operations
Some operations are based in Africa, some other are based in Europe and they simply fly to Africa on a regular basis, following the scheduled of the owner of the Private Jet.
Africa-based operations usually includes accommodation for the crew in an international and protected compound and are very remunerative.
Their rotation can be 3 weeks on duty and 3 weeks off, or 1 moth on followed by one month off.
African operations can be quite challenging as there are not the usual services as in other places of the world, and often the crew needs to be creative to sort out problems or manage situations.
Another challenge are the diseases such as malaria (mosquitos), dengue (similar to malaria), yellow fever (also mosquitos) and Epatite A (contaminated food).
It can happen that our immune system is not able to fight against the type of infection which are common in this part of the world.
We could easily suffer from diarrhea or intestinal worms after consumption of non properly cleaned food or non filtered water.
African clientele
African clientele can be quite demanding.
It is important to research as much as possible and get to know who they are, which tribe they belong to and what are their traditions.
French and English are very useful languages in the continent, and remember they are generally very attached to their heritage, cuisine, tradition and sometimes they are superstitious.
The tribes can be related to royal families.
The biggest and most important tribes are: Himba from Namibia, Mursi and Karo fromEtiopia, Samburu from Kenya, Masai from Tanzania, Ashanti from Ghana, Zulu from South Africa and Boscimani from Botswana.
All of them have different fashion, culture, religion, heritage….
The best thing to do is to research about them and style the jet with their symbols, colours, flowers, scents and other items.
Also, informations about the local dishes can be an interesting way to surprise your customers.
In conclusion, the African market can create a range of good opportunities and open up your mind widely.
It is also true that includes some potentially dangerous situations that you must be aware about.