Nigeria, others eye 2017 single African air transport

Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Rwanda and Zimbabwe are at the verge of meeting the target of having a single air transport market by the end of January 2017, Elijah Chingosho, secretary general, African Airlines Association (AFRAA), has said.


Chingosho says the possibility is very high considering the fact that these nations are ready to implement the Yamoussoukro Declaration that calls for African countries to open their skies to more flights from African airlines.

In his statement yesterday, Chingosho said Africa was set to liberalise its aviation zone by the end of January 2017, as it had the potential to double the sector’s size in five years.

He said eight countries, which collectively control 85 percent of Africa’s air traffic, planned to open their skies to other African airlines.

According to Chingosho, “Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda and Zimbabwe are ready to meet the target. We are likely to achieve the target of having a single African air transport market by the end of January 2017.”

The main challenge to opening African skies is from nations wishing to protect inefficient national carriers from foreign competition, he said, saying, “Some of these inefficient airlines lobby their governments not to allow competition from other African airlines.

“However, we try to convince these governments that competition is good for everybody because it will eventually improve the innovativeness of the sector.”

The continent needs strong airlines to compete with global carriers and small, weak airlines, the AFRAA said, adding that those that cannot compete should be discouraged

The combined fleet of African airlines only numbers 760 aircraft and this is just half the size of one single airline like American Airlines with 1,494 aircraft.

AFRAA said African airlines accounted for less than 3 percent of global aviation revenue.

Raphael Kuuchi, vice president for Africa at International Air Transport Association (IATA), said with fast growing economies, swelling middle class estimated to reach 300 million by 2030, and less than 15 percent of the continent’s one billion population ever travelled by air, “Africa has enormous potential for air transport growth.”

To unleash this potential, Kuuchi noted that the market must be liberalised, as was the case in other regions of the world.

(culled from businessdayonline.com)