The roll-out of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) has been slow because African governments appear to have only a narrow perspective of what it means for their market. This was explained by Aaron Munetsi, CEO of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa, who was addressing delegates at last week’s African Aviation Summit 2024 held at Sandton Convention Centre.
“Depending on which element of SAATM governments or a particular airport authority is looking at, that is what they are focusing on and saying ‘this is what SAATM is about’. In reality, SAATM is about a lot of different things that all come down to liberalisation.”
According to Munetsi, connectivity and the competitiveness of Africa’s airlines are central to SAATM’s strategy, as currently, this is lacking.
“We don’t have enough intra-Africa connectivity, let alone connectivity beyond Africa’s borders… Africa’s airlines must be able to compete and co-operate amongst themselves. Once we have done this, we should be able to improve our connectivity and reduce our costs.”
Munetsi broke down the steps that could be taken to embrace co-operation and realise economic growth from SAATM:
1. Increase traffic by creating new city and country pairs, focusing on growing regional traffic.
2. From an operational point of view, regulations are needed to improve efficiency and safety, the latter of which is non-negotiable.
3. Tourism should be used as a driver of aviation. Tourism and travel could not be separated, said Munetsi, and creating new experiences would stimulate Africa’s aviation industry and lead to more employment opportunities.
Although most countries welcomed the African Union’s establishment of SAATM in 2018, according to Munetsi, only nine of the 16 SADC countries had submitted a Memorandum of Implementation. He said there must be a reason for the other countries not yet signing the concord.
“We need to find this reason and help them understand the importance of them coming on board.”
