Air passengers in East Africa will each be levied $0.7 (about Sh920) to support the Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (Cassoa) finance ministers of the EAC member states approve the proposal.

The agency was established by the EAC in 2007 to oversee the development of effective civil aviation safety and security oversight in the region.

Sources close to the EAC secretariat said the fee has been proposed in order to strengthen the body, whose activities are expected to include those of the civil aviation authorities (CAAs) of the member states.

The fee would levied on every boarding passenger by the respective CAA in each country on behalf of the agency which will soon relocated to Entebbe, Uganda, from Arusha.

The measure is intended to raise the budget of the institution, whose current financing strategy, which includes contributions by the partner states' CAAs, is seen as unsustainable.

The fee, to be levied by each CAA in all the five EAC member countries, is subject to approval by finance ministers of all countries in the regional bloc.

Consultants from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) found out recently that an apportioned budget contribution the regional agency gets from CAAs was "unsustainable for the complex structure of Cassoa".

Under the Cassoa Act 2009, the five member countries are obliged to directly finance its operations, but this is now seen as not enough to sustain its operations.

The member states - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda - have up to March next year to decide on the proposed charge which is likely to raise air travel costs in the region.

But the finance ministers concurred that everything should be done to support the two-year-old EAC institution.

It is said to be the first regional civil aviation safety oversight in Africa established by cooperating states, and whose creation has been hailed by the aviation fraternity the world over.

"Currently, air fares are not controlled by governments and airlines and travel agents are currently raising the fairs for such matters as the rise in fuel prices or security surveillance," they noted.

They insisted that the agency's creation was within the EAC's long-term process of establishing a single airspace in the region with harmonised regulations and standards whose implementation will largely be overseen by Cassoa.

The agency, temporarily hosted at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, will soon be relocating its permanent head office to Uganda, and its establishment makes EAC the only region in Africa to have harmonised civil aviation regulations.

The regulations cover personnel licensing, aircraft operations, airworthiness, aviation security and aerodrome and heliport operations.

Analysts say air travel was a reliable mode of transport in the EA region given the deteriorating state of the railways and roads in many areas, especially for the latter mode.

Furthermore, the contributions of aviation in horticultural development, tourism, international trade, disaster alleviation, employment and regional visibility cannot be underestimated.

Currently there are plans to revive the Soroti Flying School in Uganda which used to operate in the 1970s under the former EAC which collapsed in 1977.