Africa must move decisively from ambition and talk to execution if aviation is to fulfil its potential as a catalyst for intra-African trade, tourism and economic growth.
This was the warning from Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) CEO Aaron Munetsi, speaking at the organisation’s 56th Annual General Assembly (AGA) in Mauritius.
Munetsi points out that Africa’s young, dynamic and rapidly expanding population represents an enormous opportunity not only for aviation but for economic growth and inclusion.
He notes that that the industry continues to operate well below its potential: World Bank and OECD studies predict around 300-million people will represent Africa’s growing middle class by 2030, driving demand for air travel to, from and within the continent.
“We need to design aviation around reasonably priced flights that depart and arrive on time, with convenient business-oriented schedules, that can be purchased using frictionless digital payments compatible with mobile money, offering products suited to traders as well as tourists, using efficient airports and border processes,” he says.
He warns that Africa can no longer afford the gap between strategies and implementation and as such the aviation sector must lead the charge for intolerance of this anomaly.
“The industry and governments have spent decades discussing the challenges facing African aviation and commissioning consultants to provide expensive strategies only to leave them unimplemented. Strategies don’t move people. Now it is time to make the difficult decisions and execute them,” Munetsi says.
In calling on industry stakeholders, governments and regulators to move beyond discussion and deliver measurable action, AASA has identified five urgent and measurable action items to stimulate sustainable growth in Africa’s passenger and air cargo sector:
- Make safety non-negotiable with investments in resources, effective oversight, training and zero tolerance for shortcuts.
- Contain costs and reign-in aviation-related taxes, fees and charges and avoid introducing new ones.
- Modernise and maintain airports and other aviation infrastructure for efficiency and apply affordable user-charges for those services.
- Eliminate anti-competitive and protectionist restrictions on market access and implement the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). Liberalisation must move beyond declarations and become a practical reality.
- Standardise regulations, recognise licences and harmonise procedures across borders.
Munetsi stresses that the value generated by aviation extends far beyond the airlines themselves.
“Efficient air connectivity increases trade, passenger traffic and tourism while helping Africa trade more effectively with itself. Aviation does not just deliver passengers. We deliver the catalytic effect to economies,” he says.