It has been nearly 35 years since the Yamoussoukro Declaration was adopted by most African Union (AU) members. The treaty established a framework for liberalising air transport services between African countries as well as fair airline competition.
In 2018, the single African air transport market (SAATM) was launched to implement fully the Yamoussoukro Decision penned in Yamoussoukro, political capital of Ivory Coast.
The Yamoussoukro Declaration was intended to address restrictions on aspects such as limitations on foreign ownership of domestic airlines.
The SA limit on foreign ownership of local airlines is 25%. This issue has been in the spotlight in SA since Airlink and Global Aviation complained to the aviation authorities about the foreign ownership structure of Flysafair, for example. Potential sanctions against the latter were still to be decided.
Yet the needle has barely moved in terms of implementation, raising the question whether the time has come to abandon these efforts as being a fruitless waste of a lot of time, energy and money, and perhaps find other ways to promote connectivity in Africa.
Willie Walsh, director-general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), does not agree.
To him SAATM is a “fantastic concept” that will have a big effect on the African market. He feels that it is a shame that the African aviation market is still only about 2.1% of the global market compared with the Middle Eastern aviation market that grew from about 2.4% of the global market in 1990 to about 9.4% today.
“The African aviation market has a huge potential, and I believe having a single market in Africa would make a huge difference in terms of connectivity,” Walsh told Business Day on the sidelines of IATA’s Global Media Day in Geneva last week.
He used the huge difference a single aviation market has made in Europe as an example of the benefits to be reaped.
“It would be a shame to simply abandon the SAATM framework. I think that starting from scratch will just get to the same [stalemate]. It would be better to keep on encouraging countries in Africa to take a leap of faith,” said Walsh.
He said the best way forward could be to create a type of “coalition of the willing” — those countries that want to take practical steps to implement SAATM. Others can then join later.
“It would be wrong to say that SAATM will never happen. We need to continue to regularly highlight its benefits.” That was why IATA was considering having a sharper focus on Africa and no longer treating it as a combined region with the Middle East.
Asked whether foreign ownership restrictions were a good or a bad thing and if they ought to be reconsidered and a universal standard applied as in other industries, Walsh told Business Day that this issue had been debated among IATA members on many occasions. Many airlines want limitations, and many don’t want it. Often airlines’ views also depend on where they are based.
“I don’t think we will ever see consensus within IATA so I do not think the situation will change,” said Walsh.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.