The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is launching Focus Africa to enhance aviation's contribution to Africa's economic and social development and improve connectivity, safety and reliability for passengers and carriers. This roadmap will align stakeholders, whether private or public, to achieve measurable progress in six areas.
Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA (and former head of British Airways and Iberia), points out: "Africa represents 18% of the world's population, but only 2.1% of air transport activity (cargo and passengers combined ). Bridging this gap so that Africa can benefit from the connectivity, jobs and growth that aviation enables is the goal of Focus Africa. "Infrastructure constraints, high costs, lack of connectivity, regulatory hurdles, slow adoption of global standards and skills shortages are affecting the customer experience as well as the viability and sustainability of African airlines. Mainland carriers suffered cumulative losses of $3.5 billion for 2020-22.
Additionally, IATA estimates additional losses at $213 million in 2023. High fuel costs, increased infrastructure charges, various taxes and statutory levies, other input costs inflationary and regulatory hurdles hamper the return to profitability of African airlines.
Africa has a solid base to promote the improvement of the contribution of aviation to its development, recalls IATA. Pre-Covid aviation supported 7.7 million jobs and $63 billion in economic activity in Africa. Projections predict that demand will triple over the next two decades. “Africa stands out as the region with the greatest potential and opportunities for aviation. Year-on-year, annual traffic in Africa increased by 89% in 2022, with a capacity increase of 51%. The Focus Africa initiative renews IATA's commitment to supporting aviation on the continent. As the new Chairman of IATA's Board of Governors, and the first from Africa since 1993, I look forward to ensuring that this initiative gets off to a good start and delivers measurable benefits," said Yvonne Makolo, CEO of RwandAir and first Chairwoman of the Board of Governors of IATA (2023-2024).
“The limiting factors of the aviation sector in Africa are remediable. The growth potential is clear. And the economic boost that a more prosperous African aviation sector will bring has already been seen in many economies. With Focus Africa, stakeholders come together to deliver on six critical focus areas that will make a positive difference. We will measure success and must hold each other accountable for the results,” Walsh asks.
The six focus areas are:
Safety: Improve operational safety through a collaborative, data-driven program to reduce incidents and accidents in the air and on the ground;
infrastructure: facilitating the growth of efficient, safe and cost-effective aviation infrastructure to improve customer experience and operational efficiency;
Connectivity: promoting the liberalization of intra-African market access through the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM);
Finance and Distribution: Accelerate the implementation of safe, efficient and cost-effective financial services and the adoption of modern ticket distribution standards;
sustainability: helping the airline industry in Africa meet the "Net Zero by 2050" emissions targets set by industry and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) member states United Nations ;
Future Skills: Promoting aviation-related career paths and ensuring a steady supply of diverse and suitably qualified talent to meet future industry needs.
“The partnerships will differentiate the results of Focus Africa from previous efforts to boost Africa's development through air transport. By joining together, stakeholders will effectively pool their resources, research, expertise, time and funding to support the common goals of the six areas of work,” added Kamil al-Awadhi, Regional Vice President of IATA for Africa and the Middle East. Africa continues on the road to recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. Air cargo represents 31.4% of 2019 levels and air transport represents 93% of 2019 levels.
Full recovery of air travel is expected in 2024. Air passenger traffic to, from and within the continent is returning to 2019 levels and, in some sub-regions, has exceeded them.
