[ad_1]
After decades of reflection and years of postponement, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is finally operational, allowing all African countries except Eritrea to trade under a single market.
As African citizens we share the joy of such a trade framework, however, AfCFTA’s mission to accelerate intra-African trade and strengthen Africa’s voice in the global market space n It won’t make sense unless the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is fully implemented.
This article seeks to advance an argument to support why the implementation of SAATM by all African countries will be in the interest of all African citizens and should be championed just like the AfCFTA.
What is SAATM?
SAATM is a flagship program of the AU Agenda 2063 which aims to create a single liberalized air market for the movement of people and goods on the African continent. It provides a framework for the protection of consumer rights, fair competition between participating players and a platform for dispute resolution.
SAATM, according to African Union policy documents, should have been implemented by 2017 after decisions taken at the 24th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in Ethiopia in 2015. In 2017, only 21 countries, including Ghana, had signed the SAATM. In the absence of SAATM, bilateral services agreements are used by countries to strengthen commercial aviation and business activities.
Bilateral air services agreement, agenda
Currently, Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) in which one country signs an agreement with another country to allow movement of designated aircraft from countries of contracting parties to operate passenger services and, in some cases, additional freight. BASA, at first glance, represents the spirit of the 1999 Yamoussoukro decision on the liberalization of African airspace, however, the benefits of BASA as a whole cannot in any way be equated with SAATM in terms of integration. of Africans through interconnectivity.
For the AfCFTA to be indeed a true game changer, then the SAATM aspect of things needs to be considered as soon as possible. Below are a few points detailing what the SAATM should bring to the AfCFTA.
Improved connectivity
SAATM will phase out BASA and provide a universal air service agreement that will allow African airlines to easily operate scheduled flights to the continent. Thus, Ethiopian Airlines will be able to transport passengers from Addis Ababa to disembark in Accra and continue with another group of passengers from Accra to Niamey. With this, intra-African connectivity will be much easier and African countries will now be more accessible.
Opening of markets for trade and tourism
Under SAATM, no country will be able to exercise its discretion in choosing which airline to fly in its country as has been done by some governments to leverage their national and other non-African airlines at the expense other relevant African airlines. . In this context, African airlines can now have access to a larger market that will increase their revenues. More importantly, even for countries that do not operate a national airline or have few flights connecting their country, under SAATM there will be inbound and outbound flights to connect people for business and tourism and facilitate the rapid movement of goods, especially under the AfCFTA.
Tax reduction
As part of the SAATM, an open playing field will be created where there is a single regulation for the establishment of tariffs, capacity and frequencies for air carriers. Airlines will have a huge sigh of relief due to the fact that fares will be subject to the terms of a regulatory agency under SAATM rather than the whims of individual African governments. This means that the airlines will benefit from certain tax cuts which will reduce their operational costs.
Better air services and reduced ticket prices
Taxes contribute enormously to setting airfares and in a situation where airlines benefit from tax reductions, the passengers who are the recipients will benefit greatly. This will make traveling to the mainland attractive and much easier. Again, competition between airlines will be intensified where airlines, in addition to cheaper fares, will now have to fight for passengers by marketing their unique qualities of service.
SAATM, a catalyst for agricultural development
Agriculture represents 32% of Africa’s GDP. A liberalized African airspace will provide air connectivity for the movement of agricultural commodities, especially those that are time-limited in Africa and in the global market. With agriculture being a major tool for poverty reduction through job creation, an improved continental freight service will serve to motivate African farmers as post-harvest losses will be reduced now that there is a larger market. within the framework of the AfCFTA. The birth of SAATM will also create an opportunity for cheaper air freight charges given competition from airlines.
Job creation
Whenever an airline establishes business operations in another country, direct jobs are created for airport and office staff, engineers, cabin crew, among others, and some indirect jobs also in the airline industry. tourism and hospitality. With liberalized airspace for all African countries, more jobs will be created to improve countries’ economies.
To support this claim, the African Civil Aviation Commission and the International Airport Transport Association commissioned a study in 2015 on the benefits of full air transport liberalization between 12 African countries (Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia , Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Uganda). The study said that full air connectivity in these 12 countries would add US $ 1.3 billion to the country’s GDP and create more than 155,000 new jobs.
Convenience for traveling
With a full implementation of SAATM, traveling across the continent will be much more convenient in terms of travel time. For example, for a person who wishes to travel from Accra to Brazzaville, Congo, they need to spend time traveling to Ethiopia and being transferred from there to Rwanda or Uganda before finally entering Brazzaville.
Another option could also be that the passenger who wants to make only one stop in Abidjan or Addis Abba spend more than 10 hours in transit. In general, for the Accra-Brazzaville trip, the traveler will end up spending more than 24 hours traveling just through 200 km of land space from Accra. By the time the traveler to Brazzaville arrives, another traveler who intends to travel from Accra to Johannesburg, over 4000 km from Accra, has reportedly arrived hours in advance.
Why we can’t fail to implement SAATM
By failing to get all African countries to join SAATM, I am not far from the arguments put forward by like-minded experts in the aviation industry that we will deny some 500,000 Africans the opportunity to travel cheaply and to explore the rest of Africa.
In addition, by continuing to rely on BASA, some airlines will continue to be subjected to unfair treatment in that some governments will continue to use their discretion to monopolize airspace and create an unfair advantage for d ‘other.
Conclusion
The argument continues, but one thing that is certain and can be said by all stakeholders is the fact that the SAATM and the AfCFTA are inextricably linked in that the former is one of the key elements that can help bring significant transformation on the African continent into inclusive sustainable development. With this, the transformation of the African continent into a world power as proposed by the AU’s Agenda 2063 would be achieved.
(The author, Richard Kyereh is a commercial aviation expert and director of the Policy Think Tank, Center for Aviation Policy and Development, Africa (CAPD, Africa)
Source link
