The African Union’s goal of creating a Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) may have to wait for another year as most African nations are unwilling to endorse the Yamoussoukro decision.
This was observed during the just-concluded capacity building workshop held in Kigali on the regulations needed for the smooth implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision
The Yamoussoukro Decision is a treaty adopted in 1999 by 44 members of the African Union, allowing open skies among them, but since then only 28 countries have signed. Rwanda is one of the first 11.
Officials revealed that lack of political will, some airlines ‘ lobbying tendencies, and some governments ‘protectionist policies designed to protect their respective national carriers from perceived external competition were the main challenges.
Experts said air transport is an important way to connect their people without well- established land infrastructure connectivity across most African countries
Singling out the International Air Transport Association (IATA) report on aviation benefits, Aaron Munetsi, African Airlines Association’s Director, Governance, Legal and Industrial Affairs, said African countries have much to gain from single airspace.
“When you look at the IATA report on the benefits of air transport carried out in 12 African countries in 2014, it showed that if these countries could open up their skies among themselves, it would create 150,000 jobs and more than US$1.3 billion in revenues,” he said.
Munetsi added that it wasn’t the only politicians to blame and called for more cooperation and understanding, particularly for the general public, making it people-centered.
Stephen Mutoro, representative of consumer protection from Kenya, said all stakeholders, especially people who frequently use air transport, had to be involved.
“We know that politicians listen to masses, so we have to bring these masses on board and get involved so that they can pressurise politicians. That way we will reach where we intend to go,” he said.
Kofi Henaku, a legal advisor for implementing the Yamoussoukro Decision, referring to Rwanda and Ghana, said that African countries should replicate the same visa removal policy for all Africans as they did at the beginning.
“African countries have to look at countries like Ghana and Rwanda for a good job they did of scraping visas for Africans, this is the benchmark and it doesn’t require much but only political will and visionary leadership,” he said.
The Yamoussoukro Decision aims complete liberalization of air transport services in Africa in terms of access, capability, frequency, tariffs and fair competition.
Of the 28 signatory nations, only 16 have been done to harmonize their bilateral air services contracts to comply with the Yamoussoukro Decision regulations.