How to stop air transport woes, by expert
The proposed Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) and unified African Passport are good regional initiative that could solve the problems of air travel in the continent. Chairman, Local Organising Committee, Airport Business Summit 2019, Mr. Fortune Idu, disclosed this to Woleshadarenews.
This is just as a consultant has advocated the development of a comprehensive agro air logistics policy to encourage investors in the agro logistics business.
The African continent boasts of some of the most breath-taking scenery, friendliest locals and tastiest cuisine on the planet, which are budget-friendly.
Sadly, African nationals don’t tour their own continent as often as they would like, mainly due to flight restrictions, long stopovers and tedious visa applications.
Luckily, all that changed. On January 28, 2018, the Africa Union (AU) launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative between 23 African countries, which will make exploring more of this beautiful continent a breeze.
Thanks to the initiative, it’s likely that African nationals will start reconsidering holidays in faraway countries and rather opt for more local travel. The SAATM makes this possible by allowing for easier connectivity between African countries via air travel, as well as reduced intercontinental air fares.
The single air market also cuts out stopovers in other countries, specifically the Middle East and Europe. No more unnecessary airport hold-up, meaning travellers can fly directly to their African destination of choice.
He said the envisaged increase in Africa air transport has increased in passenger traffic growth rate of 9.9 per cent between 2017 and 2018 as against 6.3 per cent between 2016 and 2017, stressing that it has been projected that by 2035 it will rise to 4.3 per cent annually while more people were expected to travel in and out of Africa significantly.
Currently, Idu disclosed that the continent has 731 airports with 419 airlines with the aviation sector supporting seven million jobs and generating $80 billion in economic activities. He opined that more needed to be done with the airport economies of the region being steered towards the right direction to catalyse the growth of the industry through accountability and providing incentives to support airline growth.
He called on for the consolidation of the air transport services in order to build a strong base for the industry since airport has all options on aeronautic and vast non-aeronautic revenue.
Idu urged stakeholders to not to relent in attending the conference, stressing that it was the first edition of the summit in Lagos.
He noted that the first five editions were staged in Abuja with encouraging turn out but hoped that with the movement of the summit to Lagos that it will attract more participants.
In his presentation, ‘Airport Economies: Consolidation of Air Transport Services,’ aviation consultant, Mr. Tayo Ojuri, said the opportunities that exist in the agro air business logistics were not being harnessed by players in the industry.
He observed that cargo airports were not developed with the intent to provide cargo services and called for the requisite infrastructure to attract investors and most especially the farmers in the agro commodities to grow the industry.
According to him, awareness creation was important for prospective investors especially the farmers to know the benefits derivable from the business.
Ojuri stated, “Agro based commodities from urban areas where their full utility can be realized is important because of the peculiarities of agro commodities that are sometimes bulky or perishable. “Agro based commodities serve as the base of the Nigerian economy.”
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