African airlines are not taking advantage of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), an African Union (AU) initiative launched in January this year, according to International Air Transport Association (Iata) regional head for airline and relations: Africa & Middle East, Adefunke Adeyemi.
“Currently in Africa only two countries, Ethiopia and Kenya, have direct connections to over half of the continent. In South Africa, and the rest of Africa, there is much opportunity to improve intra-African connectivity,” she said, pointing out that this would come with deregulation of African skies. Iata vice-president for Africa, Raphael Kuuchi, agreed, telling FTW that he saw the SAATM as complementary to the recently launched programme to create the African Continental Free Trade Area (AcFTA).
This could create a market of 1.7 billion people, with a total business and personal spending capacity of more than $6.7 trillion by 2030. “The SAATM is a bold initiative aimed at stimulating demand and improving the competitiveness of Africa’s airlines.” He said that this would enable higher volumes of trade, expand tourism, and grow commerce among African nations and with the rest of the world.
“This socioeconomic imperative ought to be a compelling incentive for African governments to adopt the principles of, and participate in, the SAATM,” commented Kuuchi. He said Iata analysis showed that if only 12 countries instituted the liberalised policy more than 155 million new jobs would be created in Africa – with gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimated at $1.3 billion across the continent. According to Adeyemi, closing African skies to other African nations only weakens the continent’s air travel.
“Africa should focus on growing its intra-African regional connectivity and allow the big foreign carriers to connect Africa to the rest of the world, thereby growing international trade,” she said. The African Union has a vision for regional integration, prosperity and unity across the continent, as stipulated in its Agenda 2063. “In the short term, aviation is the only way to achieve this vision – especially due to the lack of reliable road and rail connectivity – which is why SAATM is the flagship programme for Agenda 2063,” Adeyemi said.
But the success of SAATM depends on far more than a political will to open skies; there needs to be multi-sector collaboration in addition to enabling connectivity through infrastructure, safety and security, and aviation regulation. Visa regulations were just one example of this, she said. “There’s no point in opening up the skies if people can’t cross the borders on the ground.”
Adeyemi pointed out that the respective ministers of transport needed to ensure market access – through SAATM – and they needed leadership on integrated transportation strategies. Then, said Adeyemi, there was inter-airline co-operation.
The three largest carriers in Africa – Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, and South African Airways – are part of worldwide alliances, namely Star Alliance and Skyteam, but the carriers don’t have alliances with each other.
Africa should focus on growing its intraAfrican regional connectivity and allow the big foreign carriers to connect Africa to the rest of the world. – Adefunke Adeyemi
