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Africa flies on wobbling aviation wingsk
The world’s aviation summit in Abuja has come and gone. WOLE SHADARE appraises the challenges of the continent’s air transport system and possible solutions
Inexistent transit
Until recently, it was not uncommon for passengers flying between two African cities to transit through Europe. It was cheaper and faster, for instance, for passengers travelling to Ethiopia from Côte d’Ivoire to fly first to Paris with Air France and then catch a connecting flight to Addis Ababa.
With no direct flights linking their capitals, most African countries had to rely on flights from their former colonial powers to connect to each other. It still happens today but on a smaller scale; flying in Africa is improving, albeit slowly.
Poor safety record
Yet poor safety records continue to bedevil its aviation industry, thanks to low standards, inert supervision and old and poorly maintained planes.
The airports too suffer from poor maintenance and offer shoddy and expensive service. While revenue from airports and air traffic are probably adequate to finance essential investments, politics and weak management are interfering with how the money is used.
Decrepit facilities
Poor infrastructure undoubtedly adds to huge running costs. Airports are often stuffed with high-charging monopoly suppliers, in addition to other government taxes, said the International Air Travel Transport Association (IATA).
Critics say some African countries are less transparent with how they use the money from these charges. Several other countries including Nigeria have development charges of up to $50 per passenger.
Worse still, Africa has the highest airfare costs in the world per kilometre, pushed up partly by high taxes and partly by lack of competition or relatively low air traffic volumes on many routes.
High cost of travel
Investigation shows that European airline, for example, could be charged $180,000 a month to lease a five-year-old Boeing 737, but a Nigerian carrier could be slapped with a bill of up to $400,000.
Notwithstanding the litany of problems it is confronting, Africa’s aviation industry is beginning to pick up, boosted by the continent’s economic growth.
The potential
“Nowhere is the potential for aviation greater than on the African continent,” President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina told participants at the just concluded ICAO World Aviation Forum (WAF) held in Abuja, Nigeria.
With the huge potential in Africa’s aviation development, the question is, whether the continent is infrastructurally ready for the exponential passenger traffic that is forecast to grow by 5.1 per cent annually? By 2035 it will see an extra 192 million passengers a year for a total market of 303 million passengers.
Nigeria’s air traffic is expected hit 31 million by 2030. A travel consultant, Tade Ojulari, warned that the country needs to begin serious overhauling of its facilities to accommodate it.
The top 10 fastest-growing markets in percentage terms will be in Africa: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Central African Republic, Benin, Mali, Rwanda, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Madagascar. Each of these markets is expected to grow by more than 8 per cent each year on average over the next 20 years, doubling in size each decade.
Capacity devt
Responding to why Africa lags behind in aviation, Adesina said they shouldn’t look any further, adding that the continent needs to develop airport terminal capacity to expand passenger growth, develop regional aviation hubs to improve connectivity, and upgrade air navigational services and air traffic control to improve safety.
His words: “Modern and cheaper technologies such as the satellite-based air navigation services now preclude the need for ground infrastructure, and make it possible to serve remote areas with radars. We must also develop within Africa, aircraft maintenance services and strengthen regional and sub-regional aviation safety agencies”.He lamented that Africa’s aviation growth is held back by very restrictive regulatory environments, which limit market size, profitability, and drive up costs.
Africa needs safe skies
Africa is the riskiest of skies to fly in. While Africa accounts for only 3.4 per cent of all flight departures, it represents over nine per cent of all air accidents and 37 per cent of total global air fatalities. Among the 200 airlines blacklisted by the European Union (EU) over 50 per cent are African. These are shocking and non-acceptable numbers. For example, Senegal increased its landing charges by 13 per cent in 2013 on top of an airport development fee of about $68 per passenger—the highest in Africa. Nigeria charges about the same.
Taxing the poor
However, on the flip side, the cost of air travel in Africa remains exorbitantly high and is 200 per cent more than costs in the European Union and 250 per cent higher than in India for similar distances.
A big part of this is the very high taxes, fees, and levies that are charged in Africa. For example, it costs $128 to fly between London and Rome, but $597 to fly between Abidjan and Niamey, a shorter distance. And just to go from Johannesburg in South Africa, to next door neighbour Lilongwe in Malawi, the cost is $406 and again a much shorter distance than from London to Rome. If you require another example of this serious imbalance, consider for a moment that taxes paid for a Lagos to Kinshasa ticket amounts to $397, which is 300 per cent higher than the total air travel costs between London and Rome. And that’s just the taxes alone.
Thus, one can begin to understand why this is a challenge and a burden for the passenger, for businesses and, ultimately, the growth and development of the aviation sector. Aircraft departure fees alone in Africa are 30 per cent above the global average, while taxes, fees and charges are 8 per cent higher. Given lower per capita incomes in Africa, high fares essentially tax the poor out of the air. We may have an open sky policy, but then end up with empty skies.
Last line
African leaders face tough challenges in developing, upgrading and maintaining the continent’s infrastructure for air transport. Despite efforts by governments and the private sector to pump money into building a reliable infrastructure, there is still a financial gap.
