African leaders renew commitment to open skies

AFRICA could see open
skies as early as 2017.
Heads of the member
states of the African Union
(AU) met in Addis Ababa
recently and reaffirmed their
commitment to establish a
single air transport market
in Africa. They also agreed
to develop regulatory
frameworks to expedite
the implementation of the
single air transport market
and engage all specialised
institutions in the aviation
sector to support member
states in this process. The
11 countries implicated
currently in the open skies
discussions are: Benin,
Cape Verde, Congo Republic,
Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria,
Rwanda, South Africa and
Zimbabwe.
African ministers have
been talking about the
possibility of open skies
for decades, with first the
Yamoussoukro Declaration
in 1988 followed by the
Yamoussoukro Decision in
in 1999. Twenty seven years
after the first mention of
open skies, nothing much
has changed.
The AU now seems to
recognise the benefit of
liberalisation and seems
ready to drive things forward,
says Linden Birns, md of
Plane Talking. He says
Iata recently submitted a
report to the AU that clearly
outlines the benefits of
the implementation of the
Yamoussoukro Decision.
The report shows that
the additional services
generated by intra-African
liberalisation between just
12 key markets would
provide an extra
155 000 jobs and
US$1,3bn (R15bn) in annual
GDP. The 12 nations in the
report are: Algeria, Angola,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria,
Senegal, South Africa,
Tunisia and Uganda.
For Raphael Kuuchi, Iata’s
vp for Africa, the fact that
the AU has recognised
the value of open skies
and has reaffirmed its
commitment to pursuing
the Yamoussoukro agenda
is extremely heartening.
“We welcome the urgency
the African Union is now
bringing to this long-delayed
objective.”
But whether this can
be achieved by 2017 is
highly ambitious. If all the
stakeholders agree and are
ready to take action, it is
possible to achieve open
skies by 2017 but it will
be a massive challenge,
says Chris Zweigenthal,
ce of Aasa. “We can’t
hold liberalisation off any
longer.” However, Chris also
points out that, in a lot of
countries, legislation will still
need to be implemented and
adjusted to allow for open
skies.
Rodger Foster, ceo and
md of Airlink, says: “A
single market implies open
skies without any political
boundaries where any
African domiciled airline
has access to any domestic
or inter-state intra-Africa
market. This would imply a
central aeronautical authority
and a central jurisdiction for
aircraft domicile, registration
and issuance of Air
Operating Certificates.”
Rodger warns that
impediments still lie in
many African countries
whose aim is the protection
of their national carrier
rather than looking after the
interests of the travelling
public at large.