By Kenneth Ehigiator
Participants at the   just-concluded 15th Aviation and Allied Business Leadership Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, have canvassed full integration of air transport in Africa, if African carriers were to be able to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts.  Rising from the parley, the participants unanimously agreed that if there was anytime African governments needed to implement the Yamoussoukro Decision, which was designed to integrate air transport on the continent, it was now, especially considering the current global economic meltdown which had taken its toll on airlines in Africa.

Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Abdoulie Janneh, set the ball rolling when he reviewed the Yamoussoukro Dec ision and came to the conclusion that implementation should start off immediately.  Janneh blamed lack of political will on the part of African leaders to make the implementation a reality. He challenged African leaders to create the right environment to ensure the growth of air transport in Africa.

The dust raised by Janneh’s remarks had hardly settled when the Secretary-General of African Airlines’ Association, Mr. Christian Folly-Kossi, raised more dust, highlighting what he described as huge challenges militating against the growth of air transport on the continent.  Folly-Kossi cited global liberalisation and globalisation as twin concepts which African airlines are yet to key into.  According to him, the aviation industry on the continent will not grow if the both concepts were not embraced.

He lamented the fact that aftr several years of signing of the Yamoussoukro Decision by African countries, implementation of the agreement was yet to set off.  The AFRAA scribe also fingered brain drain as one major challenge that must be tackled head-on, if current manpower problem in the industry must be eradicated.  For him, one of the ways to get out of the present status of under-development of the aviation sector on the continent was for African Union (AU) to organise annual meetings with the European Commission (EU) to discuss issues affecting African airlines, especially with regards to frequent blacklisting of African airlines by the European Commission.  Noting that Africa’s contribution to global aviation revenue was a mere 3%, Folly-Kossi argued that only the full implementation of the Decision would make African airlines competitive, to the extent that they can reciprocate forays of foreign airlines into their countries.

Representative of Africa Union’s Commissioner for Infrastructure, David Kajenge, noted that since more and more small business in Africa rely on aviation to succeed, it was imperative for the sector to be given the appropriate attention to engender growth.  He disclosed that the organisation had, on its own, been taking steps to grow the industry, adding that the AU ensured  that an AU-EU guidelines were put in place in 2008 to enable African airlines withstand pressures from dominance by foreign airlines, which are largely European carriers.  He added that a continental framework aimed at bringing about a balanced arrangement between African and European airlines had also been put in place by the AU to empower airlines on the continent to be able to compete with their European countries.

According to him, the AU is doing all these also to help enhance Africa’s capability to host the 2010 World Cup.  While so much emphasis was being accorded failed implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision, Botswana Minister of Works and Transport, Mr. Johnnie Swartz, rather made case for civil aviation authorities (CAAs) on the continent.  He said it was the strengthening of the CAAs, through grant of autonomy, that could promote safety and improve earning capacities of African airlines. Swartz took the audience down the road the Botswana government had taken to solidify its CAA, but explain with glee that his country did not look elsewhere but Africa (Ethiopia) in her appointment of a director-general to head the agency.

With this, he was able to drive home the need for African countries to network in the march to develop aviation on the continent.  His keynote remark was later to drift into Yamoussoukro Decision talks, saying that Botswana had had to liberalise its local market to enable her implement the agreement, and in the spirit of integration of air travel in Africa, the Botswana transport minister said his country had already signed a bilateral air services agreement (BASA) with Kenya to facilitate direct air link between both countries.

His Namibian counterpart, Helmut Angula, was more concerned about the need for a critical look to be taken at African airlines in relation to their CAAs.  According to him, most CAAs on the continent have not fared very well in audit of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) over the years.  “ Safety oversight responsibilities need to be strengthened through the AFI implementation plan.

There is no doubt that African countries are determined to reduce incidents and accidents, which are considered the highest in the world,” said Angula, who advised African governments to put less emphasis on foreign aid as far as aviation was concerned.  For him, foreign aid is laced with strings which might be counter-productive to the desires of African countries.  He also believe safety remained the only way to growth for African airlines, adding that his country had expended much money on safety critical projects, such as a total radar coverage of Namibian airspace, which would be commissioned in May 2010.  For Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba,

Africa’s vast airspace is yet to be fully utitilised, with the non-implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision.  Omotoba, who also noted that the air transport industry in Africa had only been maginally uitlised, said the continent could be the fulcrum of global aviation development if African governments demonstrate the requisite political will to engender changes. He blamed on non-implementation of Yamoussoukro on the lack of political will of African governments.  He paid glowing tribute to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who, according to him, had remained steadfast to safety-driven projects, such as the total radar coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) and radio communication equipment, which had eliminated all the black spots in the country’s airspace.

“The key word for survival of aviation is safety, as enunciated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA),” the minister said.  Omotoba, who restated Nigeria’s commitment to aviation safety and security, attributed much of the changes made in Nigerian aviation sector in the last three years to the re-certification of airlines, airports and aviation personnel.

However, Dr. John Tambi, Transport Infrastructure expert from the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), in his presentation, gave hopes to aviation stakeholders that the AU would henceforth commit itself to the development of air transport in Africa.  Tambi, who noted that the NEPAD initiative had taken on new garb, said assured that NEPAD would be used as a tool to drive African governments to give prime attention to aviation, having realised the potentials of the industry jump-start economic development.  He described the new face of NEPAD as NEPAD Planning and Co-ordinating Agency (NPCA), stressing that with the transformation of the concept, African aviation industry was on its way to recovery.