Aviation Stakeholders Call for Collaboration to Improve Intra-regional Connectivity, Trade in Africa

Chinedu Eze in Addis Ababa

Aviation stakeholders in Africa have called for partnerships and the elimination of diplomatic boundaries to enhance connectivity among African countries in order to boost trade and create more jobs for teeming youths on the continent.

The stakeholders who met with other aviation experts, suppliers, aircraft manufacturers and others from different parts of the world, yesterday, stated that Africa cannot develop airlines that would dominate the region and beyond unless existing airlines and governments decide to work together, encourage liberalisation to increase market share of African carriers and boost air travel in the region.

 The experts met at the on-going MRO 2024 Conference, organised by the African Aviation Services, taking place at the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa from April 23 to 25, 2024.

The conference is on Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of aircraft; it is an annual conference held in Africa to draw attention to aircraft maintenance, safety and bring aviation professionals together to brainstorm on air travel development in Africa.

 The Group Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, Ato Mesfin Tasew, said although global aviation has overcome the challenge posed by COVID-19, many airlines have restored their operation to 2019 levels, but some effects of the COVID-19 lockdown is still affecting the industry, especially in Africa.

 Some of the challenges occasioned by COVID-19 included the high cost and paucity of aircraft spares, high cost of maintenance and regretted that Africa is the most affected by these unfavourable conditions, adding that a few airlines in Africa are making profits.

 Tasew said African airlines are bogged down by internal and external challenges, identifying the internal problem as lack of strategic planning and external challenges as hostile operating environment, absence of MRO facilities, noting that absence of such maintenance facility has created a vacuum in the West and Central sub-regions of the continent.

 The CEO of African Aviation Services, Nick Fadugba, said that Africa needs safe, reliable, affordable and profitable airlines that would promote travel, trade and tourism.

Fadugba, noted that currently there was need for the training of aviation personnel, need for fair pricing and better communication among industry stakeholders, adding that future prosperity would be achieved with good service, patriotism and cooperation.

 In his address, the Secretary General of African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Mr. Abdelrahmane Berthe, said in 2023, AFRAA estimated that the passengers carried by African airlines reached 85 million, representing 89 per cent of the pre-Covid 2019 level, saying since the last quarter of 2023, the traffic has reached the levels of 2019.

In 2024, AFRAA estimates the traffic to fully recover at 98 million passengers above the 2019 level.

Abdelrahmane, said the global Intra-African connectivity has reached the pre-Covid level since December 2022. However, the number of existing connections is far lower than the real potential, remarking that as the aviation community, “we must continue the ongoing joint efforts to transform and foster a sustainable and resilient air transport system in Africa.”

 “The air transport sector’s priority in Africa is to address sustainability, stop marginalization, gain competitiveness, conquer the intra-Africa market, and grow the global market share. At AFRAA, we have four priorities for 2024.

“The first priority is safety. Safety is critical for our business. AFRAA in partnership with Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is staging the Inaugural Safety and Operations Summit on 15 May 2024 here in Addis Ababa, back-to-back with the Stakeholders Convention hosted by Ethiopian Airlines.

“The second priority is intra-African connectivity: African airlines should cooperate more on commercial agreements. New routes development in collaboration with other aviation stakeholders is critical to facilitate the movement of people across the continent. The third priority is sustainability,” he said.

 Regarding environmental sustainability, the AFRAA Secretary General said, “Our actions are aimed to create awareness and built capacity within our members. Sustainability is not only environmental. It includes economic and social sustainability as well.

“Under this priority, our ambition to develop cost savings, revenues generations projects for our members. The fourth priority is continuing the implementation of AFRAA’s 5-year strategic plan which is running since 2021.”

 He said the number of aircraft operated on the African continent in the next 10 years was estimated to reach 1,429 units as the result of a growth rate of 2.3 per cent per year from 2024 to 2034. But to operate more aircrafts, it would be critical to facilitate the access to aircraft financing for airlines and to develop MRO capacities across the continent.

“There are two critical challenges for MRO activities growth to be addressed. The first challenge is the supply chain. This challenge is rising the cost of maintenance for airlines.

“Fuel and maintenance are the highest elements of airlines’ operating costs. The cost of fuel is high in Africa. A combination of fuel and maintenance high cost is impacting the tickets fares and making air transport unaffordable for African citizens.

“The GDP per capita in Africa being only 15% of the average global GDP per capita. The second challenge is the labor shortage. To operate more aircraft, we need to develop human resources. According to Boeing global market forecast, the needs for skills in Africa from 2023 to 2042 are 22,000 engineers, 21,000 pilots and 26,000 cabin crews,” he said.