While air travel plays a key role in promoting economic growth, regional integration and connectivity, Africa's demand dynamics remain immature, Wole Shadare writes
Africa's transport systems are characterized by limited connectivity and undeveloped infrastructure in many regions. However, recent trends reveal significant changes as they experience negligible increases in demand for air travel and highlight new possibilities for the continent in the global aviation market.
The continental transport network is a mix of roads, rail, maritime and air transport. However, systematic challenges such as inadequate road networks, inadequate rail systems, and high costs associated with maritime transport highlight the pivotal role of air travel in tying African countries internally and globally.
Some of these challenges have forced the African Union (AU) to view liberalization as the key to unlocking the possibilities of Africa's travel and finding better ways to connect the vast continents.
Experts believe that liberalizing air travel across Africa will create more than $2 billion in economic activity and create jobs for over 150,000 people. However, several factors hamper the growth and efficiency of the African airline sector, including government restrictions, high taxes and lack of competition.
Many agree that embarrassingly low levels of Africa's air connectivity are depriving them of reaching the full potential of the continent and its people.
African aviation services are poorly connected, and often require several days of travel and flights through other continents to reach destinations within Africa.
To address the bottleneck, AU launched a single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) in 2018, launching it to create one African air transport, but this has not produced the desired fruit due to the cumbersome aviation connectivity within the continent.
Traveling 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in air between two capitals on the same continent does not look like a challenge. But it could be African.
Take, for example, Libreville and Bangui. This trip takes at least nine hours, and passengers will need to change planes and fire $1,000. This is an example of the challenges facing the African aviation sector due to high tax and protectionist policies.
In comparison, does a flight between Paris and Madrid, which exceeds a comparable distance take two hours and cost five times more?
Unlike in Europe, “traveling to the continent is extremely difficult,” said Moses Adegbessan, a travel expert who spoke to Aviation Metric.
“In Europe, for example, Air France can make many flights to Germany, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. This freedom does not exist within Africa,” he said.
Air travel in West and Central Africa has shed tears due to bottlenecks created by the African government. For example, a flight from Abuja to Douala in Cameroon, which shares its border with Nigeria, can take tourists around 24 hours a day.
Also, a trip from Nigeria to the Central African Republic takes travelers to Kenya, East Africa, before arriving in Bangui. Worse, the cost of flying on the West Coast and Central Africa is as high as the cost of flying from Nigeria to Europe, for example.
In most African countries, African airlines encounter hurdles like restrictive contracts, high taxes, expensive fuels, and visa restrictions that limit growth and profitability.
Some African countries that have approved the SAATM treaty and some African countries that do not fully comply with the regulations rely on high landing fees and other fees to discourage other African airlines from operating within the airspace. This has nothing to do with the high flight tariffs in Africa.
Abuja Airport followed by Lagos Airport is considered to be the most expensive airport in Africa. Their exorbitant fees are a barrier to the global competitiveness of Nigerian airlines. Of the 53 African airports, 32 charge more than $50 per traveler, while 10 airports charge more than $100. In comparison, passengers in Europe are charged an average of $30.23, while in the Middle East the average is $29.65.
West African countries have been isolated as a result of difficult flight connections, as a result of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Apart from a shortage of carriers, exorbitant taxes and claims imposed on a small number of carriers, where some routes highly prohibit investment in West and Central African routes.
The restricted travel rights granted to airlines by the African government limit the number of direct routes and frequency of flights, making travel lengthy across 54 continents.
A study conducted by the African Union's International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2021 found that out of 1,431 possible connections between each member state of the bloc, only 19% had a direct flight once a week.
Protectionist mechanism
According to experts who prefer anonymity, “a protectionist mechanism that supports local airlines, such as flying or operating foreign companies within their territory, hampering competition, or raising prices.
As a result, air traffic in Africa is very high and not growing. The route is offered very thin.
According to the IATA, “Africa is a region where airfares are much higher.” In addition to government restrictions, the prices of air travel in Africa are also affected by very high taxes and the costs of aviation fuel.
Africa's low refining capacity means that aviation fuels are mostly imported and “often 30% more expensive than elsewhere, including oil-producing countries.”
The decision of Yamoussoukro – a 1999 treaty aimed at paving the way for liberalisation of the African aviation sector – was followed in 2018 by the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) project.
The Struggle for Liberalization
But such ambitions struggle to take off. The overall idea is that liberalising the market will increase connectivity and reduce costs.
Bilateral aviation services agreements between countries mean that many companies cannot “use planes of selected capacity and run flights as desired,” he added.
Economic benefits
A 2014 IATA survey of 12 African countries stated that liberalization would increase air traffic by 81% between these countries.
Removing market barriers in just 12 countries will generate $1.3 billion in additional economic activity and 155,000 jobs. For now, cross-continental regional travel is extremely challenging and makes business difficult
“Once you get your clients and create a quote, you have to consider the cost of your trip,” the construction consultant said, adding that high airfares can be too expensive for certain customers and have been forced to abandon business opportunities.
“Africa is a vast continent, and road connectivity is relatively poor,” he pointed out.
“Air transport is required to move the specialized knowledge required for corruptible goods, traders and intra-African trade.”
The last line
Africa, with a population of over 1.4 billion, currently contributes less than 3% to global air traffic. The fully operational African air transport market will increase African traffic by more than 10%. SAATM is expected to reduce passenger travel and waiting times by more than 20%, stimulate airline competition, open more direct flights, lower fares and strengthen Africa's tourism sector.
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