Africa’s airports are lagging their global counterparts when it comes to digitisation – and further exacerbating the issue is the fact that airlines are often left out of any moves towards improved digitisation, resulting in solutions that are not fit for purpose.
This was a concern raised during the recent WTM Africa session on the topic: ‘Delays, Data Breaches and Dysfunction – is Africa ready for seamless air travel’, facilitated by Linden Birns of Plane Talking, and Aaron Munetsi, CEO of AASA. The talk explored the continent’s readiness for digital transformation in air travel.
Munetsi explained that digitisation went far beyond paperless tickets. “It’s about passengers interacting with the entire value chain, from the airline to ground-handling, air navigation and airport operations, as well as about airlines understanding passengers’ needs and regulators ensuring safety and security.”
He said when airports shut down during the pandemic, they were already dealing with outdated technology and, since reopening, they had been scrambling to meet new demands. Birns pointed out that some passengers weren’t even able to get a mobile boarding pass at major airports and asked Munetsi whether he believed airports were doing enough to speed this process along.
“Definitely not,” said Munetsi. “We are nowhere near where we need to be. Passengers should be able to check in from home and go straight to the boarding gate. He added that the problem was just as bad upon arrival, with passengers often queuing for 40-60 minutes at immigration after an eight-hour long-haul flight. “It sends the wrong message about our readiness.”
A key issue is that almost all Africa’s 628 commercial airports are state-owned. “Governments often treat airports like border posts, not business environments,” said Munetsi. “They don’t see digitalisation as a competitive edge. So airlines end up investing in systems themselves, and then having to ask for concessions to recover those investments.”
Little hope
And speaking of digitisation and visas, Munetsi said African travellers still faced costly, paper-based application processes and there was little hope that this would improve in the near future. Concerns persist around the security and integrity of African passports, with some countries citing the ease of fraudulent acquisition as a key barrier to relaxing visa restrictions.
“First, we need to acknowledge we have a problem and then the second phase is determining the checks and balances we put in place to ensure passports are secure. If you try to fix the problem as Home Affairs, or as a border agency, you will just be thinking about it from what you think the problem is – and these agencies tend to leave airlines out – and roll out the solution and end up with egg on your face as it doesn’t solve the problem.
“Only eight out of 55 African countries have signed up to the African Union’s free movement protocol,” he said. There have been some small wins, like the KAZA visa, which allows visitors from several key inbound source markets to have free movement between Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, but there has been very limited progress in terms of similar initiatives, which is hindering intra-African travel. “Imagine if just 10% of Africa’s 1,4 billion people started travelling across borders. The impact would be enormous,” Munetsi said.
One obstacle is outsourced visa services. “Outsourcing was meant to reduce corruption, but it’s created new channels of inefficiency and cost. Even digitisation efforts are sometimes blocked because they disrupt long-standing tender contracts for paper-based forms,” he added.
On air traffic navigation, the technology gap is widening. “Aircraft have modern digital systems, but they’re still being guided by outdated, analogue infrastructure,” said Birns. “There’s no harmonisation of data exchange because governments like to preserve sovereign assets and geopolitics means we are shifting away from globalisation towards nationalism.”
