AFRICAN airlines and airports
need to work together to
address teething problems
that are delaying the full
implementation of the Single
African Air Transport Market
(SAATM).
This was the call from
African airline executives
at the AviaDev Africa 2019
conference. Air Namibia’s
chief commercial officer, Ben
Kakonda, called on fellow
airlines to share traffic rights
through codeshares and
interline agreements to make
SAATM work and open up intraAfrican markets. “We should
consider Africa our domestic
market,” agreed Nowel Ngala,
commercial director of Togobased ASKY Airline. “It took
ASKY three years to get traffic
rights to Dakar and it’s been
impossible to get fifth freedom
rights to Dakar and Burkina
Faso. We have a serious
problem with authorities who
are not willing to understand.”
Guarantees of fifth freedom
reciprocity and an effective
dispute resolution mechanism
were critical SAATM structural
back-ups highlighted by Kenya
Airways’ head of Network
Planning & Alliance, Martin
Gitonga. “African airports
should see us as partners
instead of taxing us at every
opportunity. East and South
African airports are taking a
lead in this, but the biggest
challenge lies in West Africa.”
Africa World Airlines head of
Commercial, Richard Kyereh,
said the private Ghanaian
airline had started positioning
itself to take advantage of
the opportunities that SAATM
would bring. “Most carriers
think SAATM will mean that
big airlines will swamp the
market and swallow smaller
airlines, but we think it will
bring competition and more
opportunities for small
airlines,” he said.
Ben said the airline was
already benefiting from fifth
freedom relaxations, such as
on its route between Ghana,
Namibia and Johannesburg.
“SAATM is going to open up
areas for small airlines like
ourselves, areas we never
thought of serving before.
There are some countries
where the solution is not
yet forthcoming. If all
countries sign up to SAATM
it will help us and it will
increase connectivity in
Africa,” he said.
Iata’s Raphael Kuuchi
advised airlines to engage
diplomatic channels to
negotiate fifth freedom rights
and to share their concerns
where restrictions remain.
