Gambia grants Overland Airways Fifth Freedom Right to deepen SAATM

• Carrier launches flight to Banjul

Nigeria’s flag carrier airline, Overland Airways has been granted the Fifth Freedom right by The Gambian Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA); a significant boost to widening the airline’s operations from any part of The Gambia to any destination within the sub-region in line with the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), a policy of the Africa Union (AU) that liberalises the African skies.

The Director-General of GCAA, Nfansu Bojang disclosed on Saturday when Overland Airways launched service to the West African country with its brand new E-175 aircraft.

In what appeared to be a watershed moment in The Gambia’s air transport industry, the thrice-weekly service via Freetown is launched against the backdrop of renewed efforts to enhance intra-African air connectivity through the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).

The DG noted that as SAATM Pilot Implementation Project (PIP) State and a founding member of the Banjul Accord Group (BAG), the decision of the government to grant Overland Airways Fifth Freedom Traffic Rights through Freetown in line with Article 3.1 of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) reinforces, “Our commitment to the ideals of SSAATM in the BAG sub-region.

The Fifth Freedom Aviation Right means that the aircraft of country A, from a service originating in country A, is allowed to embark passengers and cargo in country B and disembark them in country C.

The GCAA was of the view that establishing a direct air link between Lagos and Banjul would greatly benefit the two sister countries as it would enable greater movement of people which would lead to wider economic benefits.

Bajang assured the carrier of total support and commitment in the form of incentives, granting of rights on other routes as well as designation where necessary, geared towards making its Banjul operations successful.

He lauded the Chief Executive Officer of Overland Airways, Capt. Edward Boyo for his commitment to SAATM implementation and efforts to make air transport seamless within West Africa in particular and Africa in general.

He said he never had any doubt in Boyo’s commitment and confidence in the promotion of the integration of intra-African air connectivity.

“The YD we know is more than three decades old and the one that came next is 15 years old now. Now, we have SAATM. SAATM is an AU project but we don’t want SAATM to be another ten years, we want SAATM to be now and for SAATM to be now, we must believe in ourselves and we as regulators and operators and service providers, we hold it to ourselves to support our airlines in any ways possible and one of the ways to do that is to make travel affordable to our citizens.”

The Gambia’s Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, Ebrima Sillah disclosed that without the Fifth Freedom to Banjul, the growth of the hub concept will not happen.

“As the Director-General of Gambia Civil Aviation Authority said, “It is a comparative advantage among the nations. Not everybody will have fun. Not everybody will come good but everybody can have sense. He has seen what it takes. As we sit here, we are ruled by the Gambian Civil Aviation Authority.”

“As we sit here already, take traffic from Nigeria, take traffic from Ghana, and take traffic from Sierra Leone into Banjul. We are also able to take out in the same direction. We are discussing the extension to Dakar already under the Fifth Freedom of this country. Even though we have their traffic right already from Nigeria to Dakar, imagine how interesting it would be if we could have a satellite here to serve the Bamu River basin and aggregate traffic here and we take them to Nigeria and Ghana. It works fantastically.”

 Boyo said air travel is currently confined to the well-to-do. Overland Airways according to him presents itself under the AU AFCAC Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) programme designed to open the skies of Africa and raise the integration of African member states.

“We are trying to make air transport affordable and available for everybody so that the African continent can progress in economy, trade and integration of people. We are committed to this service to develop the Nigerian and the Gambian economy.”

Wole Shadare