Abuja – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged African governments to prioritise the development of aviation nationally and collectively to bolster economic growth and development in the continent.
Mrussein Dabbas, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East, made the call at the IATA Aviation Day Africa on Monday in Abuja.
The theme of the event is ‘Driving African Economies through the Power of Aviation’.
Dabba urged all African nations to expedite the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision to stimulate economic growth and development with at least five million more passenger journeys a year on the continent.
The agreement commits its 44 signatory countries to deregulate air services, and promote regional air markets open to transnational competition.
It is a follow up to the Yamoussoukro Declaration of 1988, in which many of the same countries agreed to principles of air services liberalization.
In 2000, the Decision was endorsed by head of states and governments at the AU and became fully binding in 2002.
He said that cost-effective and appropriate infrastructure development was critical to the sustainability and expansion of African aviation, adding that consultation and collaboration among airlines and their infrastructure partners was crucial.
“No one knows better than the airlines the level of airport charges that enable a route to be viable, and the kind of amenities they need to support their passengers and aircraft efficiently.
“All too often in Africa, there is no real engagement with the airlines prior to development and this leaves airlines burdened with paying for excessive and unsustainable development costs.
“IATA is urging African governments to tackle the excessive surcharges on fuel, which can make fuel purchases on the continent up to 20 per cent more expensive than the global average.
“Airlines operating to Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana and Kenya are particularly affected by above market fuel costs. These surcharges increase airlines’ cost burden when they are already operating in a challenging environment.’’
Dabba advised that development should be guided by principles of non-discrimination, consultation, transparency, cost-benefit and not pre-financing in line with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines on infrastructure funding.
He said that Africa was set to be one of the fastest growing aviation regions over the next 20 years, with annual expansion averaging nearly five per cent.
This, he said, would open up economic opportunities for the continent, adding that by transporting up 70 million passengers annually, aviation had supported 6.9 million jobs and 80 billion-dollar investment.
“Aviation has the potential to be a much greater strategic catalyst for growth, if governments would stop milking the industry for taxes and enable it with smarter regulations focused on safety and the development of connectivity.
“The commitments are already there with the Abuja Declaration and the Yamoussoukro Decision and it is time to achieve them in partnership with the industry.”
According to Dabba, safety in Africa is top priority and governments have committed to achieving world-class safety levels in the Abuja Declaration.
He further said that while safety had improved, Africa had the highest accident rate among regions in 2015, at 7.88 accidents per million.
“IATA’s Operating Safety Audit (IOSA) has shown the power of global standards underpinning safety operations and the 32 sub-Saharan airlines on the IOSA registry are performing 3.5 times better than non-IOSA operators in terms of accidents.
“IATA calls on African governments to improve safety oversight and adopt IOSA together with ICAO’s safety-related standards and recommended practices (SARPs).
“As at the end of January 2016, only 21 African countries had at least 60 per cent SARPs implementation,’’ he said. (NAN)
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