Air Liberalization: “It is time for Africa nations to open their skies to each other in order to realize the untapped social and economic benefits Africa is missing out on” – IATA

L-R: Trevor Henry AVP Arik Air, Samson Fatokun Country Manager IATA, Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi Director, Consumer protection Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Adefunke Adeyemi Regional Head, Member &External Relations Africa& Middle East IATA, Chief John Adebanjo West Africa  Group Rep. Virgin Atlantic at the Intra-African Air Connectivity presentation at the Protea Hotel Ikoyi

Despite African countries’ adoption of the Yamoussoukro Decision in 1999, the implementation has been slow and the immense benefits have not been realized. On the 11^th of December at the Protea Hotel, Ikoyi Westwood, IATA’s Regional Head of Member and External Relations for Africa and Middle East - Adefunke Adeyemi, examined the need for African countries to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities available, but remain untapped, due to poor connectivity amongst African States.

Africa is a continent of over 1 billion people with a huge geographical spread that is largely land-locked. Given the lack of robust alternative infrastructure that traverses the continent (road, rail, water), aviation is the effective way to get around Africa. Unfortunately, Africa is not well connected in terms of air services. In many cases, the only way to get to countries in Africa is to travel for days or through other continents. This lack of connectivity is making Africa lose out immensely on socio-economic benefits and growth opportunities.

In collaboration with some of its regional partners across Africa, IATA commissioned a study early this year on how Africa’s socio-economic prospects can be transformed through enhanced connectivity. The study looks at 12 countries across Africa, and quantifies the numerous benefits that would accrue to those countries, their sub-regions and Africa as a whole, if they were to fully open their skies to connect with each other. The 12 nations in the report are: Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Uganda.  The study shows that full air connectivity across those 12 countries would generate an additional $1.3bn in GDP, over 150,000 new jobs and numerous other socio-economic benefits in just those 12 countries. Imagine what this could mean if all 54 countries in Africa opened up to each other. It would be a game changer!

A potential five million passengers a year are being denied the chance to travel between these markets because of unnecessary restrictions on air routes. 

The study was launched this year in Johannesburg on the 18^th of August and Adefunke Adeyemi is spearheading the roll out and advocacy of the study’s results across Africa.

Aviation already supports 6.9 million jobs and more than $80 billion in GDP across Africa. The IATA report clearly demonstrates that liberalization will create opportunities for further significant employment growth and economic development. The jobs and GDP impact for the 12 countries in the study are listed in the table below.

NATION             ADDITIONAL EMPLOYMENT        ADDITIONAL GDP (USD MILLIONS)

 Algeria                                 11,100                                                   123.6

 Angola                                 15,300                                                   137.1

 Egypt                                    11,300                                                   114.2

 Ethiopia                               14,800                                                   59.8

 Ghana                                  9,500                                                     46.8

 Kenya                                  15,900                                                   76.9

 Namibia                              10,600                                                   94.2

 Nigeria                                 17,400                                                   128.2

 Senegal                               8,000                                                     40.5

 South Africa                      14,500                                                   283.9

 Tunisia                                 8,100                                                     113.7

 Uganda                               18,600                                                   77.6

The study clearly highlights the crucial role air transport plays in driving economic and social development in Africa through enhanced connectivity. Governments should support the growth of the industry by fully liberalizing African skies as intended by the Yamoussoukro Decision.

Given that a better connected Africa will increase the GDP of all countries in Africa, Finance and Tourism sectors across the continent should be interested. Given it will help create new jobs, politicians should be interested in making true connectivity across Africa a reality. Given it will help move over 1bn people across the continent, education and health sectors should be interested. Given it facilitates the deployment of food and aid, agriculture and civil society should be interested. Given it helps facilitate transfer of services, goods and technology, business and private enterprise should be interested. And finally, given it will provide the end users – passengers and freight forwarders - more choice, lower fares, time savings, improved efficiency, better products, increased competition and sheer convenience, in other words, better value for money, everyone should be interested.