Prohibitive costs and politics stymie integrated African airspace

It’s too late to try to create
an integrated African
airspace that can compete
with the rest of the world,
according to Comair CEO
Erik Venter.
Speaking at the 10th
anniversary of the Transport
Forum Special Interest
Group in Johannesburg last
week, he said every country
in Africa wanted to control
its own airspace, and have
its own policies and air
strategy, which contributed
to historic aviation safety
issues.
“Governments are not
prepared to talk to each
other and compromise on
setting common standards,
including in training and air
traffic control.
“Twenty-eight years after
Yamoussoukro, we still don’t
have common understanding
of who will be approved as
registered African carriers.
We also don’t know how
competition authorities
will regulate the different
carriers," he said.
“The development of an
African airline training
organisation hasn’t gone
far yet, but
is showing
great
potential
to set
standards.”
Africa
remains
the worst
performing
region in
the world
in terms
of airline
performance,
and is still
a target of
prohibitive
taxes and
airport charges. Current
domestic airport charges in
Lusaka, for example, total
$221 compared to R168 in
South Africa.
“The big barrier is the
lack of cooperation across
African countries and
the massive turnover in
shareholders, boards of
directors, CEOs and general
management in the African
aviation industry.”
East Africa
has replaced
Johannesburg
as a preferred
transit hub,
particularly
for travellers
to China and
India. The
continent is
now entirely
covered by
Middle East
carriers, with
air traffic that
previously
stopped in
Johannesburg
having
essentially disappeared.
“Johannesburg has
deteriorated as a transit hub,
due to the visa cost, and
the fact that today you can
f ly north from just about
anywhere,” Venter explained.
Recovery of the oil price
in the last few years had
not translated into any
improvement in African
airline profitability, and
the continent still had
a very small middleclass
population, he
continued.
In addition, the
continent continues to
be plagued by incredibly
high airfares, with only a
small minority of African
travellers choosing air
travel.
He said central
African airlines
had achieved
cost savings in
the collaborative
procurement of
fuel, parts and
maintenance, but
the practice was
anti-competitive
in South Africa.
“Until we
get the
types of
volumes
that
support
genuine low-cost airlines,
Africa will continue to be a
very difficult place to f ly,” he
added.
INSERT
East Africa
has replaced
Johannesburg as a
preferred transit
hub, particularly for
travellers to China
and India.
– Erik Venter