Africa air infrastructure needs ‘heavy investment’

Delegates to this year’s 17th African Aviation and Allied Business Conference in Tanzania got an earful from industry players and government officials calling for more investment in national and regional air infrastructure if air cargo volumes are to realise their full potential. “The industry needs heavy investment which the governments alone cannot manage. African governments cannot succeed in the aviation industry without private sector’s support,” Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete told the more than 200 delegates. One Tanzanian airline official blamed bad national air infrastructure for his aircraft’s inability to do half the work of which they are capable. However, with traffic volumes up 10% over last year, government has raised along with private partners $68m for airports rehabilitation projects. The value of human capital as a component of Africa’s aviation infrastructure also seemed to be recognised, as delegates bemoaned the “poaching” of skilled African aviation experts by Middle- East and Asian firms. But a medley of progress was also headlined at the conference such as the Luanda to Lagos direct flights set to start in September, the two new Boeing 737-800 aircraft that will be delivered by October to RwandAir to the pressure on Nigeria to privatize the country’s airports. In Zambia the Zambia National Airports Corporation (NACL) has accepted the recommendations of a US-funded survey of national air infrastructure needs through 2029 done by consultancy group LeighFisher and which emphasized rehabilitation of the Lusaka airport, into which feed Zambia’s three other international airports. First order of business is a new $20m control tower and $200m terminal for Lusaka. With five new carriers landing at Lusaka since the start of 2011 and cargo volumes expected to rise, terminals that have long exceeded their usefulness will have to be replaced. NACL sites cargo handling facilities as in need of urgent upgrade with Lusaka increasingly utilized for in-transit cargo to the copper belt and other destinations. Nigeria needs not only a desperate upgrade of airfreight facilities, but “state of the art facilities” compatible to the value of rising and increasingly specialised cargoes, according to Nigeria’s Airfreighters Stakeholders Association. Air cargo regulations are “obsolete” and round the clock customs clearance is now necessary at all airports, the group said while calling on its government to take the air cargo sector seriously. While the air infrastructure future was being mapped at Dar es Salaam, East African Countries (EAC) have sent aviation officials to Kigali to facilitate the harmonisation of cargo tariff and passenger ticket prices amongst the EAC, with the goal of reducing prices and boosting air traffic volumes.