The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has welcomed Sunday’s launch of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative by the African Union (AU) to open up Africa’s skies and improve intra-African air connectivity.
Enhanced connectivity is expected to stimulate demand, improve the competitiveness of the African airline industry and enable higher volumes of trade, growing commerce between African nations and the rest of the world.
“Every open air service arrangement has boosted traffic, lifted economies and created jobs. And we expect no less in Africa on the back of the SAATM agreement. An Iata survey suggested that if just 12 key African countries opened their markets and increased connectivity, an extra 155 000 jobs and US$1.3 billion in annual gross domestic product would be created in those countries,” said Raphael Kuuchi, Iata vice president for Africa.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who started his reign as AU chairperson on Sunday by announcing the launch of a Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), pointed out that the regional body was “nearly ready” to adopt the Continental Free Trade Area. “It needs to be done this year," he said.
Kagame told Africa's leaders that "by committing to break down these various barriers, we will send a tremendous signal in Africa and beyond that it is no longer business as usual."
The Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is a flagship project of the African Union Agenda 2063 efforts to create a single unified air transport market in Africa, as an impetus to the continent's economic integration agenda.
Eligible airlines are now at liberty to fully operate the traffic rights provided for in the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision which provides for full liberalisation in terms of market access between African States, the free exercise of traffic rights, the elimination of restrictions on ownership, and the full liberalisation of frequencies, fares and capacities.
To date, 23 AU member states have adhered to the new commitment – Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo and Zimbabwe.
