Single African Air Transport Market welcomed by IATA

The African Union (AU) has launched a Single African Air Transport Market initiative to both improve intra-African air connectivity and open up the continent’s skies. With enhanced connectivity demand should be stimulated, as well as competitiveness of the airline industry improved and air travel made more accessible.
In turn, higher volumes of trade should be achievable and a growth in tourism seen, along with improved trade between African nations and beyond.
According to Raphael Kuuchi, IATA’s Vice President for Africa: “The SAATM has the potential for remarkable transformation that will build prosperity while connecting the African continent. Every open-air service arrangement has boosted traffic, lifted economies and created jobs. And we expect no less in Africa on the back of the SAATM agreement. An IATA survey suggests that if just 12 key African countries opened their markets and increased connectivity an extra 155,000 jobs and US$1.3 billion in annual GDP would be created in those countries.”
Kuuchi added that: “We commend the 23 States that have signed up to SAATM. It is an important step forward. But the benefits of a connected continent will only be realized through effective implementation of SAATM—firstly by the countries already committed and also by the remaining 32 AU member nations still to come on board.”
Two previous open skies pledges, the 1988 Yamoussoukro Declaration and the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision, failed to be successfully implemented owing to an absence of an underpinned regulatory text. The AU has now chosen to adopt the regulatory text of the Yamoussoukro Decision which covers competition and consumer protection and dispute settlement, as these safeguard the efficient operation of the market.