Time to address embarrassingly low intra-African air connectivity

Air travel plays a critical role in fostering economic growth, regional integration, and connectivity, yet its demand dynamics in Africa remain underexplored, writes WOLE SHADARE

Africa’s transport system is characterised by limited connectivity and underdeveloped infrastructure in many areas, which has historically constrained mobility. However, recent trends reveal a remarkable shift, with air travel demand experiencing a negligible increase, underscoring the continent’s emerging potential within the global aviation market.

The continent’s transportation network encompasses a mix of road, rail, maritime, and air transport. But systemic challenges, such as poor road networks, inadequate rail systems, and high costs associated with maritime transport, have underscored the pivotal role of air travel in connecting African nations both internally and globally

Some of these challenges forced the Africa Union (AU) to see liberalization as the key to unlocking Africa’s travel potential and to look for better ways at connecting the vast continent.

Experts are of the view that liberalizing air travel across Africa could generate over $2 billion dollars in economic activity and create over 150 thousand jobs. But several factors inhibit growth and efficiency in Africa’s airline sector, including government restrictions, high taxes and a lack of competition.

Many agree that the embarrassingly low level of intra-African air connectivity is depriving the continent and its people from reaching their full potential

Africa’s air services are poorly connected, often necessitating multi-day journeys or flights via other continents to reach destinations within Africa.

To address the bottlenecks, AU launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) in 2018 towards creating a single Africa’s air transport but this has not yielded the desired fruits as air connectivity within the continent is cumbersome.

Travelling 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) by air between two capitals on the same continent does not seem like a challenge. But it can be one in Africa.

Take Libreville and Bangui for instance. The journey takes a minimum of nine hours, requires passengers to change planes and shell out $1,000 — an example of the challenges facing Africa’s aviation sector because of high taxes and protectionist policies.

In comparison, a flight between Paris and Madrid, which crosses an equivalent distance, takes two hours and costs five times less?

Unlike Europe, “travel on the continent is very difficult,” said Moses Adegbesan, a travel expert who spoke to Aviation Metric.

“In Europe, Air France, for example, can make as many flights as it wants, to Germany, Belgium, Spain or Portugal. This freedom… does not exist within Africa,” for African carriers”, he said.

Air travellers in West and Central Africa do so with tears due to bottlenecks created by African governments. For instance, a journey by air from Abuja to Douala in Cameroon, which shares borders with Nigeria, could take the traveller about 24 hours.

Also, a journey from Nigeria to the Central African Republic would take a traveller to Kenya in East Africa, before arriving in Bangui. Worse still, the cost of flying in the West Coast and Central Africa is as high as the cost of flying from, say, Nigeria to Europe.

In most African nations, African airlines encounter hurdles like restrictive agreements, high taxes, expensive fuel and visa restrictions which limit growth and profitability.

Some African countries that have endorsed the SAATM treaty haven’t adhered completely to its regulations, resorting to high landing fees and other charges to discourage other African airlines from operating within their airspace. This isn’t unconnected to the high flight tariffs in Africa.

Abuja airport followed by Lagos airport are adjudged as the most expensive airports in Africa, their exorbitant charges are impediments to Nigerian airlines competitiveness globally. 32 out of 53 African airports impose fees exceeding $50 per traveller, and 10 airports charge above $100. In comparison, European passengers are billed an average of $30.23, and in the Middle East, the average is $29.65.

As a result of the difficulty in flight connections, West African countries – comprising Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo – have remained isolated from themselves.

Apart from the lack of carriers, the exorbitant taxes and charges levied on the few carriers that ply some of the routes make investment in West and Central African routes very prohibitive.

Restricted traffic rights granted by African governments to airlines limit the number of direct routes and the frequency of flights, and make journeys longer across the 54-nation continent.

According to a study conducted in 2021 by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for the African Union, out of the 1,431 possible connections between each of the bloc’s member states, only 19 per cent had a weekly direct flight.

Protectionist mechanisms

“Protectionist mechanisms favouring local airlines, such as charging foreign companies more for flying over or operating inside their territory… hampers competition and drives prices up, according to an expert who preferred anonymity.

As a result, air traffic is so expensive in Africa that it isn’t growing. Routes are very thinly served.

According to IATA, “Africa is the region where airfares are by far the highest.” In addition to government restrictions, the price of intra-African air travel is also affected by very high taxes and the cost of aviation fuel.

Africa’s low refining capacity means that aviation fuel is largely imported and “often 30 per cent more expensive than elsewhere, including in… oil-producing countries,” said the expert source.

The Yamoussoukro Decision —a 1999 treaty intended to pave the way for the liberalisation of Africa’s aviation sector— was followed by the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) project in 2018.

Liberalisation struggle

But such ambitions have struggled to take off. The whole idea is that if you liberalise the market, it will increase connectivity and it will reduce costs.

Bilateral air service agreements between countries mean that many companies are not able to operate flights “as many times as they want, using the planes of whichever capacity they choose,” he added.

Economic gains

A 2014 IATA study covering 12 African nations said liberalisation would cause air traffic to jump 81 per cent between these countries.

Removing market barriers between just a dozen countries would generate $1.3 billion in additional economic activity and help create 155,000 jobs. For now, regional travel across the continent is very challenging and makes business hard

“Once you get a client and are drawing up your quotation, you must consider the cost of travel,” said a construction consultant, adding that high airfares sometimes made a contract too expensive for certain customers, forcing him to abandon business opportunities.

“Africa is a vast continent; connectivity by road is relatively poor,” he pointed out.
“Air transport is necessary to move the perishable goods, the traders, the expertise that will be required for intra-African trade”

Last line

Africa, with a population of over 1.4 billion, currently contributes less than 3% to global air traffic. A fully operational African air transport market will increase Africa’s traffic to more than 10%. SAATM is expected to reduce passenger travel and waiting times by more than 20% , stimulating airline competition, opening up more direct flights, lowering fares, and bolstering Africa’s tourism sector.

 

 

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