The Managing Director of Boeing Africa, Mr. Henok Teferra Shawl in an exclusive interview with Aviation & Allied Business Journal at the 57th AFRAA AGA held in Luanda, Angola discussed the supply chain challenges, MRO facilities in Africa, Cape Town Convention, development and deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for African airlines, the implementation of SAATM and Boeing’s collaboration with African financial institutions amongst other topics.
Q: What trend are you seeing in Africa from a Boeing Perspective?
A: What we see in Africa is long term and a very robust economic growth. This is not just us, but also studies by many other organizations that Africa’s GDP is growing by an average of 4%. This is a strong economic growth that translates into high demand for air travel. More people want to travel and have the ability to travel, so the trend is very strong. That’s why the Boeing Company projects that Africa will need close to 1,200 new aircraft in the next 20 years.
Q: From the growth projections, what are your priorities for Africa?
A: We foresee that this is a fast-growing, emerging market, but in order to enhance the growth of this market and to collectively meet the needs of the industry, we need to work on a couple of things, which are a priority for us and I think for the industry generally in Africa, including our customers.
One is, enhancing safety, and there we have a lot of support systems in place, with our customers, but beyond our customers, we also work with regional organizations, where we support safety programs across the continent.
The second is that, in order to drive this industry, you need skilled, trained workforce. In the various facets of the skills requirements, whether pilots, engineers, marketing, finance staff, we believe that there’s a lot to do to train African youths, and so we are doing our share in contributing to that, whether it’s through university partnerships, whether it’s with our customers, or whether it with high schools, enhancing on the job skills or acquiring skills in the areas that are fundamental for the growth of the industry, not just in Africa, but globally. In Africa, you will need some 74,000 skilled workforce over the next 20 years, but globally, I think Africa can be a real supplier of talents for the aviation industry because you know, the population is very young, and so we want to drive that effort as well. We are doing our part as over the last years we’ve trained maybe 45,000 people here in Africa, for various trainings, whether it’s airline management for top managers, middle level management, whether it’s technical training, STEM training, University partnerships. That is a second area that’s very important.
Safety, capacity building, and then very importantly to ensure that the growth of the industry is done in a sustainable way, so that we honor our commitment to the environment and the world. We are working very hard with our partners to ensure the development and deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, which, as you know, reduces emissions by 85%. There I would say are the very key pillars.
Q: How is the supply chain challenge affecting your customers in Africa and what are you doing about it?
A: We have seen progress in many areas of the supply base and continue to work with our suppliers on a part-by-part basis to best manage our production system. Our focus is on closely partnering with our suppliers to assure supply and advance our shared goals of safety, quality and stability. We collaborate with our suppliers through a variety of approaches, including daily communication and embedded teams, focused on delivering a steady supply of conforming, compliant parts to support our production system and customer deliveries.
Q: When you look at the West African region, there is no big MRO in that region. And the majority of aircraft operated in that market are mostly Boeing aircraft. What are you doing in this regard?
A: That’s a very strategic question. We represent 70% of the African aviation market. We have a responsibility as a company, and also, it’s good business to make sure the infrastructure, the ecosystem is there, to enable the growth of the industry.
Boeing and the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development of Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen Nigeria’s aviation sector in August 2025.
As part of a strategic relationship with the ministry and Nigerian airlines, Boeing will provide planning workshops, training, technical support and assessments to Airline Operators of Nigeria.
Q: Is it too early to talk about the country where the MRO Centre will be Sited?
A: We are providing the technical support as I said, the tooling support, and the training support. I could not announce in their place, that would not be correct but it will come fairly quickly. But the main point is we need aviation infrastructure, not just maintenance, but also training facility. You have a very good facility in Addis, for example, you have one in Egypt, one in Morocco, as well for the North, and in Algeria. We have one in South Africa. I think we need also for West Africa and we need one also for Central Africa, Congo being for the heart of Central Africa. Rwanda is also working towards that objective of developing the MRO. But we need this infrastructure, and the more there are, the more I think the aviation industry will be supported.
Q: Some weeks ago, we were in Abuja to talk about the Cape Town Convention. Obviously, part of the issues that we have in African aviation is access to funding. What else can be done to help African airlines acquire more modern aircraft?
A: We have a finance division in Boeing that’s working on it 24/7, to basically develop platforms where we bring together African development banks, such as Afrexim, ADB, and then African commercial banks, and then lessors, with a view to create a platform that serves as a leasing, dry leasing that is available, affordable dry leasing arrangement for African airlines and in particular in Nigeria.
So, it’s a work in progress and I think we have made a lot of progress. We are very happy with the kind of responses we have seen from what we have facilitated with our friends in Nigeria, and we think this is the way forward for the African industry. We need African-specific leasing platforms that cater for African airlines’ needs, especially the small airlines. The big airlines have the means to lease directly, but until the small airlines grow, they will need these arrangements and we are working very hard with the banks, as I said, commercial and development banks, as well as the leasing companies, global leasing companies to ensure that this happens. And I think it’s a very good example of Nigeria, with what happened with United Nigeria Airlines taking aircraft from Southwest in the US.
This is the way forward, because I think dry leasing will be the key for unlocking the growth of many small airlines in many parts of Africa.
Q: You spoke about safety already as one of your priorities for Africa. The safety indices for Africa show improvements, but operators are still complaining about lease and insurance rates being high on the continent due to negative safety perception.
A: As you said a lot of improvements have been made in the continent to enhance the overall safety environment and I think this has been recognized. But we have to constantly improve safety, and to make sure that safety in the continent is up to international standards.
That’s something to which we are committed and which I think in today’s meetings here, everybody’s committed from the airlines, to AFRAA to AFCAC and so on. So that’s very important.
Having said that, we also need to make sure that there is no wrong perception about the African airline industry, and also that not everybody is lumped in the same basket, and that our continent is treated fairly in terms of assessing where it is in terms of safety. We need to work, all of us, hard to change that perception, that needs to change.
We also, I think in Africa, as an industry, they are talking about having a pool of African insurers to make sure that the premium that African airlines pay is reasonable and commensurate with the reality on the continent. So, we have to make sure that safety is our priority, continues to be our priority. We work on enhancing it continuously, improve our safety standards.
We are playing our part as an OEM, airlines are also playing their part; regulators are playing their part, AFCAC, of course, is dedicated to their coordinating role. And at the same time, we need to make sure that, you know, there’s no wrong perception about the continent. I mean there are airlines in this continent that have among the highest safety standards in the world, and we have countries who have one of the highest ICAO safety audit reports. So, we need to have this dual approach.
Q: Let’s look at connectivity. Everybody says more connectivity will lead to affordability and bring down the cost of. travel within the continent. But the SAATM that is supposed to be the linchpin of the continent’s liberalisaton efforts has only been signed by 38 countries, of the 38 not all have even fully implemented it?
A: Well, I mean, you can always look at the glass and say its half full or half empty. I was involved in it when I was in Ethiopian Airlines. It’s basically about the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision; it’s about liberalizing Africa skies for African airlines. And we’ve seen progress. Yes, it’s not the progress we would want because it’s not every country that has accepted it, officially 38. We want all countries to sign up and then all countries to implement it.
The technical work has been done and AFCAC is doing a great job in advocating for the implementation of SAATM. I think more broadly, we have to look at it in a holistic way. Air travel is constrained in Africa, because African countries trade very little among themselves. 85% of Africa’s trade is with the rest of the world. You have some regions that are doing much better, like West Africa that has a more liberalized environment.
It’s also about the structure of our economies. And as Africa grows and industrializes by transforming our economies to value addition economies, and not just consumer economies, not just raw material exporting economies; as we transform and open up, if and I’m hoping and pleading for the framework to change as well where we can travel without visas; as we open with this African free trade area (where there’s a lot of progress with almost all countries have signed up to it, all countries have submitted their protocol of the list of goods that they are willing, to accept from other African countries without any tariff and trade barriers), that environment will inevitably spur the growth of air travel in Africa. That will also trigger what we have seen in the European market. With the Single European Act in 1992, you saw the exponential growth of air travel within Europe, and then you saw people who basically didn’t have the means to travel, affording to travel because you had new airlines that came up, the low-cost carriers, the Ryanair, EasyJet.
We need that momentum or policy in Africa, so that air travel demand grows and that will of course, have an effect here as well on the affordability of tickets.
Q: Do you have any customers in Africa for the Boeing 777X?
A: There is one that has already been announced – ET has ordered 8 firm and 12 options in 2024. Ethiopian has a tradition of being a Boeing launch customer, they did it for the 787, Ethiopian was the third actually, the second as a country after the two Japanese carriers, ANA and JAL, and then they ordered as well back in 1984, the 767s. They did it as was highlighted in 2024 for the 777x.
Q: When are they receiving this?
A: As soon as the aircraft is certified. We are fast, that process is now on track. They will be able to receive it and operate it, and you will be able to enjoy it on a long-haul route, when you fly from Addis Ababa all the way to the US, or to other long-haul destinations.
Q: For the intra African regional market, is there any Boeing response to the Airbus A220s?
A: We feel that the African market is growing rapidly; volumes are coming. For these regional aircraft, we feel the 737-7 Max, which is in the process of being certified, is the perfect aircraft for this market. Depending on the configuration, it can go up to hundreds plus 20, 30 depending on how you configure it. But what’s important is that, I mean as an airline CEO I operated the 737 older version, it’s really in terms of range, capacity, the best value for money aircraft you could find in terms of cost, as well as in terms of operational efficiency. So that aircraft, the 737-7 Max will be the perfect aircraft for the African intra-regional growth market. We’re betting on that and many airlines tell us it’s an ideal choice. Compared to the others the cargo space is much larger, also the range, the capacity, it’s really unbeatable. And that’s why the 737 is so popular in Africa.
Q: Do you have any time frame for entry into service?
A: It will be next year, definitely, but it depends on the regulator, FAA. So next year. I mean, the passenger numbers are there, but we want them to be dense, like in Europe. So, you need visa restrictions to be lifted. Obviously, you need more trade between African countries and that can come about through the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). So, it’s a very exciting time to be in African aviation.