On the face of it, Africa would seem to offer the best opportunity anywhere in the world for civil aviation. Despite around 15% of the world’s population living in Africa, travel within the continent accounts for less than 5% of world passenger traffic according to IATA’s latest World Air Transport Statistics. This suggests there is ample opportunity for growth in African Civil Aviation.
However, any study of Africa shows that it is not that simple. Africa is a vast continent with a plethora of countries with different levels of development and with significant variations in terms of economic structure, institutions, natural resources, culture and religion. Five countries account for 67% of the continent’s GDP, with political instability, natural disasters and armed conflicts hampering the development of many African countries, and leading to poor aviation safety records.
The regulatory environment for most African states developed along similar lines. Bilateral Air Services Agreements were separately negotiated with other countries, leading to a lack of a co-ordinated air services policy. Air carriers were constituted as part of the government ministries, along with the regulatory authorities, leading to a lack of separation of responsibilities. Lack of investment over the years has left poor physical infrastructure for air services and air traffic control.
The growth of air transport services represents a significant economic opportunity for African countries. As they integrate into the global economy through vehicles such as the WTO, they will need to upgrade the provision of air services for passengers and cargo. Progress on the liberalization of air services in Africa has been slow, but several frameworks are now in place.
Most Civil Aviation Authorities are autonomous to a greater or lesser extent, separating the provision of services for regulatory oversight. ICAO is helping to audit the CAAs and through the Cooperative Development of Operational Safety and Airworthiness Projects (COSAP) sets out the roadmap on how individual States can restructure their CAAs so that they become financially and technically independent and create an environment and expertise which is essential in the delivery of high quality safety oversight.
In parallel, IATA has put emphasis on African airlines adopting its operational safety audit programme (IOSA), with support for external funding of dedicated training projects. Airline operational safety audits play an important role in further improving industry safety performance, as African airlines adopt more multi-lateral arrangements such as code-sharing.
The investments in infrastructure necessary to support an increase volume of air services with improvements in safety are being made, with IATA services charges going directly to support infrastructure programs. The upgrades to ATM-CNS systems to satellite technology are happening and need to be accelerated across the continent.
Finally, liberalisation of the air services market as agreed in the Yamoussoukro decision of 1999 should be accelerated. This will remove the legacy bilateral agreements with a continent-wide policy on air services, which will also allow airlines to participate in international agreements.
With a focus on safety and infrastructure improvements, coupled with a move away from restrictive policies, the aviation industry in Africa could be set for a period of rapid growth. The economic benefits to African countries of a thriving, competitive air services industry taking its place on the world stage will more than compensate for the investments by increasing access to those countries for business, tourism and goods.
Gael is delighted to be working with the aviation regulatory community in Africa to help achieve these goals.