Air Travels: Despite Poor Infrastructure, High Taxes Persists

Chinedu Eze

It has been established that air travel in Africa is costly and cumbersome due to huge government taxes and immigration bureaucracies, a development that is retarding economic growth of the African continent.

The Managing Director of Asky Airlines, Mr. Esayas WoldeMaria, who established the fact, while speaking recently at Accra Wiezo in Accra, Ghana after his airline won award as the best airline in West Africa, said there was need for Africa to integrate more for its economic development, insisting that government must cut down on the huge taxes charged on air travel that are significant disincentive to travel, trade and tourism.

He regretted that the enormous taxes collected by governments of various countries in Africa were not ploughed back to develop aviation infrastructure and that explained why Africa has undeveloped airport infrastructure, adding that Africans would have had freer movement if airfares are low and travel by Africans in Africa is visa free.

WoldeMaria stressed that there is stronger unity in West Africa compared to other regions, but travel in West Africa is cumbersome and costly due to taxes and charges, urging for drastic reduction of immigration protocols to enhance trade and higher economic growth.

 “West Africa is a great place to be. But unfortunately, the entire continent of Africa, which is contributing to 18 per cent of the world’s population, is contributing only 3 per cent of the global aviation traffic. So, Africa is still underserved. West Africa at that is very much underserved when it comes to air connectivity. Dependable air connectivity is in short supply. Because for 400 million people, by the way, in Africa there are different regions, the East African sub-region, the South African, the Central African, the West African, the North Africa.

“You know, my brothers and sisters, I watched them speaking about the not-so-enough integration in West Africa. But believe you me, the ECOWAS is, by any relative terms, the most integrated region in Africa. It is the number one most integrated. But for us who come from a different part of Africa, of course, West Africa is somehow a little bit more expensive,” the Asky Managing Director observed.

Compared to East Africa, WoldeMaria said the economic standard and the cost of doing things in West Africa remained better than East Africa, disclosing that he paid $200 for a visa, which is highly exorbitant for an African in Africa travelling to Another African country.

“But I have to pay this. The 1.4 billion sons and daughters of Africa need to be freely roaming everywhere on the continent. And they need to be buying and selling from each other. They need to be investing in each other. You know, capital, employment, economy needs to sink into the soil of Africa. Otherwise, it will always be exporting cheap oil and importing all expensive goods. It would be a dump site,” the Asky Airlines boss said.

Speaking on challenges and prospects of integrating West Africa through air travel, he said the sub-region over 400 million people is a big prospect, which could enhance economic growth if air travel is made affordable and encourage people to move easily in the sub-region.

“The affordability of air traffic, air travel, needs to be worked on more so that people can start moving. With $800 billionGDP per annum in the sub-region, aviation needs to be made affordable to everyone. So, in relative terms, as I said, in Africa, the West African sub-region is more integrated. And this unsaturated market, starved of essential dependable connectivity is there. Aviation will be the answer.

“How long is the ECOWAS road from Dakar in terms of kilometers? It would be 3,000 kilometers. You know, building that and connecting people. But building just a kilometer runway in every airport can connect all the 400 million people. It is cheaper in terms of investment. All the road and rail across the nations, this one will come faster. So, this is a big prospect. But when it comes to the challenge, the high cost of doing business comes to aviation. When you buy a ticket, more than a third of the ticket is going to taxes. About 37 per cent to 38 per cent,” he stated.

WoldeMaria said governments in Africa use all kinds of excuses to increase charges and taxes on air travel but unfortunately they do not use the revenues earned from there to develop air travel infrastructure, noting that there are many airports in Africa that are grossly underserved.

“Countries have all kinds of grammar to pay the tax. They say infrastructure development tax, this tax. When the subject is finished, they will say solidarity tax. They will create all kinds of grammar and collect more money. And the fact of the matter is that all the money collected does not go to the infrastructure to develop it. It is siphoned somewhere else. It is divested somewhere else. So, because of that, aviation infrastructure in Africa is not well developed. Many airports are in Africa, about 40 airports in the sub-region of West Africa, most of them are only hosting small airlines. When it comes to the big airlines, the wide-body, there are only a few of them which are hosting. So, it needs to be developed otherwise, the cost is very expensive,” he said.

The Asky Airlines managing director further said that there were some charges and taxes Africans should not be paying while flying across the continent, noting that this would make fares cheaper and affordable so that more people can travel by air and the more people travel, the more wealth is created.

He pointed out that over flier charges, handling expenses, landing fees are a lot too much and these are disincentives to air travel on the continent.

“There are landing fees, handling expense, overflying charges and others. When you cross every country by a flight, do you know how much you pay for one flight? When an aircraft departs from Togo to go to Cape Verde, it will cross Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, and all this, then it goes to its destination. In every country that you cross you pay about $2,000per crossing for every country. So, no wonder why buying a ticket is so expensive,” he said.

WoldeMaria reiterated what has been said at various aviation fora that many officials in government circles in Africa see air travel as elitist and make it expensive through inimical policies because they travel at government expenses.

He therefore advised that governments in Africa should make air travel less expensive because it is the safest and fastest way to travel.

“So, the challenges are the taxes, the high cost, and also the traffic right. You know, in the African Union, the solemn declaration of the African countries is that they invoke the SAATM slogan. Single African Air Transport Market, Continental Free Trade Area Agreement. Those beautiful slogans, Africans are good at invoking slogans. And they sign; but when they come back home, everybody is protective of his airspace.

“They say Single African Air Transport Market but when you ask for a traffic right to country X, they will say, no, no, no, no, I am not going to give you, or I am going to give you once in a week, and so on and so forth. So, only invoking slogans is a problem, unless it is implemented,” he added.