Empire Aviation (MJE, Dubai International) is considering establishing a maiden base in Africa with Nigeria said to be a top contender CEO Steve Hartley has said. The move is to be finalized next year following the establishment of a Hong Kong International operating base.
“We already have eight aeroplanes operating in Africa and that fleet does continue to grow so it would quite logical that we have to do something [there],” he told the Gulf News on Monday.
The Dubai-based carrier specializes in global business air charter services using Embraer Legacy 600/650, Hawker 850XP/900, and Challenger 600/601/604s.
The nascent sub-Saharan African market is seeing strong demand with economies in the region among the fastest growing in the world.
In August this year, Greek business-aviation specialist, GainJet Aviation (GNJ, Athens), announced its own plans to establish a maiden African base in Rwanda. Once regulatory hurdles have been cleared, the operator plans to base a Gulfstream V out of Kigali allowing direct flights from Africa to the US East Coast and South East Asia.
