Aaron is one of the Africans who have a wealth of knowledge and experience of aviation in Africa. He has been in aviation for a greater part of his life and has worked with airlines as well as aviation industry associations. His career with SAA spans more than 20 years and he spent most of the time in Africa and the Middle East region in various positions. His career in the aviation industry spans almost 40 years and he is passionate about the development and growth of African aviation in general and cherishes the opportunity to continue contributing towards the enhancement of the continent’s aviation sector.
Aaron rose through the ranks at SAA in various roles in South Africa, UAE, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, and Nigeria where he served as the airline to develop its footprint in Africa. Aaron’s passion for developing and growing the SAA brand was insatiable and he motivated for the establishment of various routes and entities to serve the continent and South African Airways. One of his proud moments is when he motivated and obtained buy-in for the first-ever commercial agreement between African airlines, which enabled SAA and Nigeria Airways to cooperate on the Lagos to New York route, which proved to be a very successful venture.
Demand for his experience and knowledge of the continent saw Aaron take senior positions, such as Executive Manager for East Africa & West Africa, where he coordinated the growth and expansion of SAA’s footprint in countries such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. He took up the challenge of Regional Manager for North, West, and Central Africa where he managed the commencement of services to Gabon and Cameroon. He further proposed and led the negotiation with various host governments for the introduction of intra-African operations, such as Libreville to Douala as well as Libreville to Cotonou and the Accra to Abidjan route. Aaron and his team have been the force behind the establishment of several new SAA routes in Africa and they are proud to have ensured the success of the SAA relationship with Africa World Airlines in Ghana. An avid reader, Aaron enjoys Coaching and Mentoring young Aviators and is keen to ensure that the African aviation sector continues to develop the youth into the leaders of the industry.
Aaron is now focusing on a new approach to the continent’s aviation sector by developing what he refers to as “Beneficial Disruption Capacity”, which offers the aviation industry to capacity and capability to develop and implement effective solutions.