By Chinenye Anuforo
For air transport business to thrive and contribute to Africa’s sustainable rapid development, stakeholders in aviation industry gathered in Ethiopia and dialogued on the way forward.
According to them, it is timely to redefine the narrative of Africa’s air transport industry to that of interconnectedness, affordability, profitability, efficiency, and sustainability.
The convention, held under the theme “Changing the African Aviation Narrative”, was graced by Her Excellency Nasise Chali, Ethiopia Minister of Tourism and His Excellency Dr. Alemu Sime, Ethiopia Minister of Transport and Logistics.
Speaking at the Convention on the importance to change the future of our industry with transformative ideas and actions, Mr. Abdérahmane Berthé, Secretary General, African Airlines Association (AFRAA) emphasized that African Airlines face many challenges that the industry needs to contemplate and find lasting solutions with serious consideration. “Critical among the challenges facing our industry is sustainability. Only 10% of African citizens can afford air transport, meaning there is a huge room for growth. Reducing the cost of operation, cooperation among airlines, partnerships, and consolidation are part of AFRAA’s initiatives and advocacy to make air transport affordable for Africans.” he said.
The main objective of the Convention was to convene stakeholders to dialogue and deliberate on subject matters to pave the way for the air transport industry’s development and change the narrative of African Aviation. This Convention also aimed at establishing lasting interactions and partnerships among aviation players and airlines in the aviation value chain for win-win relationships that will benefit African aviation.
In the discussions, stakeholders took note of the following achievements made under the roadmap of the laboratory outcomes, among others:
1. On the development of a new model of sharing critical infrastructure to reduce investment costs, a data gathering process has been launched in the field of technology used by Air Navigation Service providers (ANSPs), procurement, and investment practices. This will be used for comparison and best practices to guide all the ANSPs.
2. Regarding the FRA progress, two member airlines volunteered participation in a total of 5 city pairs in the FRA trials. FRA implementation on these routes is estimated to avoid burning 3,200 metric tons of fuel, emitting 10,100 metric tons of CO2, and yield savings of US$ 2,784,000 annually. The FRA trials are planned to start in 2023.
3. On SAATM, a total of 20 States have committed to the Pilot Implementation Programme (PIP) as of April 2023. For each of the States lined up for the PIP roadshows, States are being engaged to sign MoUs to carry out the gap analysis of the BASAs.
iii. CSR event for youth development in aviation
After the conclusion of the Convention, AFRAA, in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines and Collins Aerospace, staged a 1-day youth event on 10 May 2023 as part of CSR activities aimed at empowering and motivating the next generation of aviators at the Ethiopian Aviation University. The event was sponsored by Ethiopian Airlines and Collins Aerospace. A total of 130 high school students from 10 schools in Ethiopia benefited from the initiative, which is aimed at supporting youth development in aviation.