Advertisement

Single Air Transport Market; Towards one African sky

Friday May 25 2018
sky
By AFRICAN UNION

The lack of direct flights between African countries holds back economic integration and makes journeys much longer for passengers.

By increasing connectivity, the African Union’s Single African Air Transport Market initiative promises to end travellers’ misery and boost economic growth.

For many travellers, moving across the length and breadth of Africa can prove daunting. Not only are flights expensive but more often than not there are no direct flights between African countries. In addition, major airlines that operate from out of the continent involve layovers in faraway cities like Dubai, Paris or Istanbul.

Currently only five countries have direct flights connecting to more than 20 other African countries – Ethiopia (30), Kenya (28), Morocco (27), South Africa (25) and Nigeria (20).

There are no direct flights from Addis Ababa to Tunis for example, with the fastest one-stop flight between the cities taking close to 11 hours. However, stopovers of more than 24 hours are common.

These are some of the challenges caused by an unconnected Africa.

Advertisement

Africa has 118 international airports and over 500 domestic airports. The main regions of traffic growth are North Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya); Southern Africa (mainly South Africa); Eastern Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda) and Western Africa (Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal).

Availability of air transport is indispensable for a number of countries due to inaccessibility of large parts of the continent by surface modes of transport (road and rail).

The continent has 15 landlocked countries with poor surface transport infrastructure and eight island states.

A 1,600 metre runway is sufficient for a short or medium haul airline to interconnect most of the major cities. It is cheaper to construct and cheaper to maintain as compared to road or rail networks. Air transport therefore offers the only way to connect the capitals of these landlocked countries and island states to other capitals across the continent.

In terms of passengers, African airlines carried some 79.5 million passengers in 2015 and this is expected to grow to 303 million by 2035 according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), or higher if air transport is fully liberalised.

Anticipated growth is due to population increase and rapid urbanisation, expansion of the middle class, expansion of aviation infrastructure through hub development, and adoption of an open skies policy. The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) predicts passenger levels will rise to 602 million by 2040.

Routes with liberal air services agreements have seen an increase in traffic; e.g. liberalisation of air services between South Africa and Kenya in the early 2000s led to a 69 per cent rise in passenger traffic.

Ethiopia’s pursuit of more liberal bilateral agreements (on a reciprocal basis) has contributed to Ethiopian Airlines becoming one of the most profitable airlines in Africa. On intra-African routes with more liberal bilateral agreements, passengers using the Ethiopian Airlines network benefited from a 10–21 per cent decrease in fares and 35–38 per cent higher frequencies compared to restricted intra-Africa routes.

What is the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM)?

SAATM is a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and aims to create a single unified air transport market in Africa, as an impetus to the continent’s economic integration and growth agenda.

SAATM provides for the full liberalisation of intra- African air transport services in terms of market access, the free exercise of first, second, third, fourth and fifth freedom traffic rights for scheduled and freight air services by eligible airlines. It removes restrictions on ownership and provides for the full liberalisation of frequencies, tariffs and capacity.

It also provides eligibility criteria for African community carriers, safety and security standards, mechanisms for fair competition and dispute settlement as well as consumer protection.

SAATM aims to ensure intra-regional connectivity between the capital cities of Africa. The impact of air transport liberalisation accrues to the entire continent by improving air services connectivity and air carrier efficiencies.

The rationale for establishing SAATM is based on documented experiences from other regions – the European Single Air Transport Market and the liberalised air transport markets in Latin America (Chile, Costa Rica and Brazil).

Air transport can open and connect markets, facilitating trade and enabling African firms to link into global supply chains. It plays a pivotal role in just-in-time global manufacturing production and in fresh agricultural produce transportation. Enhancing air connectivity can help raise productivity, by encouraging investment and innovation and by improving business operations and efficiency.

The granting of fifth freedom traffic rights is important for the growth of the intra-African market.

Fifth freedom rights with respect to scheduled air services, permit an eligible African carrier to fly between two other African countries on a flight originating or ending in its own country. For example, with Egypt, Kenya and South Africa being part of the single market, this will allow South African Airways to fly Johannesburg–Nairobi–Cairo or for Egypt Air to fly Cairo–Nairobi–Johannesburg with rights to lift and drop passengers at intermediate stops. It is also important that visa requirements are relaxed for Africans within the intra-African air transport market.

So far, 25 member states have declared their commitment to the implementation of the SAATM; namely: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Chad, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo and Zimbabwe.

SAATM was launched during the January 2018 AU Summit and signals the AU’s determination to lobby for liberalisation of the aviation market and continuing the “open skies” discourse that allows African carriers to fly anywhere within Africa.

The implementation of SAATM is closely aligned to other flagship projects of Agenda 2063 such as the African Passport and enabling the free movement of people, and the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA).

The future of Africa is being forged. SAATM will greatly contribute to Africa becoming a significant and influential global player in the aviation and related sectors.

Bringing an end to the endless hours spent at airports waiting for connecting flights and the knowledge that a great continent is coming together should be the driving mission of African governments and the central story of SAATM.

Find out more about the AU, Agenda 2063 and SAATM by visiting www.au.africa