Market Intelligence: Africa

South Africa — Skyhawk Aviation is pleased to announce that 100 percent of its shareholding has been acquired by new flight training group holding group Excellentia Airline Academy. This includes the entire fleet of twenty aircraft, simulator, both ATOs (Approved Training Organisations), being Lanseria and Grand Central, Approved Maintenance Organisation (Skyhawk Aviation Technical), as well as transport and accommodation divisions.

An extensive hand-over process is in place for the rest of the year.

This acquisition, alongside the acquisition of Aeronav Academy at Lanseria, will pave the way for Excellentia, as the holding company, to become the largest provider of pilot training on the continent, while maintaining the individual brands.

With a sound operational outlook as well as major financial backing, plans are firmly in place to take this venture to over one hundred aircraft within the next 18 months, with additional bases already being finalized in Gauteng.

Mike and Tracey Gough, who started Skyhawk over seventeen years ago, would like to thank their global network of consultants who have contributed to the massive success of the company and are excited to watch the next evolution as Skyhawk and Aeronav are ramped up to address the critical skills shortage in the aviation sector.

Source: Skyhawk Aviation

South Africa — Excellentia Airline Academy (EAA) is proud to announce that it has now formally completed the 100% acquisitions of both Aeronav Academy as well as Skyhawk Aviation, combining 2 long established flight training schools under the EAA umbrella, forming the fastest growing flight school in South Africa. The schools are based in both Lanseria and Grand Central (where EAA Head Office is located), giving excellent flexibility for flight training slots.

The South African aviation sector is highly respected in the global arena, and EAA are bringing a larger corporatised approach with proper economies of scale. EAA was founded by passionate aviation entrepreneurs, together with a management and ownership team including experienced aviators with both commercial and military experiences. EAA recognises the huge demand for newly qualified pilots in a post Covid world, and EAA is gearing up to cater for this growth requirement of newly qualified pilots – EAA is targeting to have trained over 6,000 pilots by 2030.

EAA combines the existing fleets of each school (primarily Cessna C-172’s, Pipers and Diamond aircraft currently), and then regularly adding new additional Sling 2 NGT aircraft every month, taking the aircraft training fleet from almost 30 currently to over 100 aircraft within the next 18 months, and 200 within 3 years. The Sling 2 NGT has a modern 100hp Rotax engine, spacious wide-view cockpit and a full suite of modern Garmin avionics. EAA’s trainers are ably supported by state-of-the-art flight simulators, allowing its students to obtain their CPL, and then be qualified to fly commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320/321 families.

Source: Excellentia Airline Academy