Maputo — The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) is asking African governments to protect the civil aviation market from an "invasion" by competitors from the west.

"We are asking the African governments not to prejudice the interests of African companies by deliberately admitting companies from the west", the general secretary of AFRAA, Nick Fadugba, told AIM. He was speaking at the end of a meeting of the AFRAA general assembly, held in Maputo.

"All the African companies are small, weak and without money", he said. "So we are asking for support from the governments. Otherwise there is a risk that one day they will all collapse".

Yet at the same time, AFRAA is asking for the liberalisation of air space. This is not a contradiction, according to Fadugba, since the liberalization envisaged by AFRAA is so that African companies can fly wherever they like on the content, without opening the same space for western companies.

"What I am saying", explained Fadugba, "is that most licences are currently held by foreign (i.e. non-African) companies, and the African airlines are losing business".

He claimed that about 70 per cent of air traffic in Africa is in the hands of western or Middle Eastern companies. He cited the company Air Este which operates in South Africa, and is owned by Spanish capital. But this company is scarcely a threat to any established airline, since it is catering for a small, extremely rich niche market. It uses small luxury aircraft, and only offers first class accommodation. South African Airways will not be quaking in its boots.

AIM asked Fadugba whether this predominance of non-African airlines is not simply the result of poor quality service by the African companies.

"That's why we need funding for infrastructures to train staff, and above all to develop synergies between the companies", he replied. He wanted to "share benefits through joint ventures. Working together we can improve quality".

He admitted that financial difficulties had led several once prominent African companies to collapse. The names that no longer exist include Nigeria Airways, Ghana Airways and Zambia Airways.

The international financial crisis has damaged the financial situation of the airlines - though its impact has been more severe in Europe and the Middle East than in Africa.

Air traffic in Africa rose steadily from 2003 to 2007, but in 2008 there was a four per cent drop in the number of passengers. Last year, despite all efforts to reduce operational costs, African airlines made an overall loss of around 300 million US dollars. But this is just a small fraction of the global losses to the airline industry of 16.8 billion dollars.

Projections from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicate that this year the African airlines will lose 500 million dollars - which is regarded as reasonable when compared with most other parts of the world.

And some African companies are making a profit despite the crisis. Fadugba's predecessor, Folly Kossi, told the Maputo meeting that the profitable companies include Mozambique Airlines (LAM), Ethiopian Airlines and South African Express. Others have registered losses but are in basically sound condition, including South African Airways (SAA), Kenya Airways and Air Mauritius.

Kossi told reporters that he believed AFRAA was "more necessary than ever". He insisted that African airlines "must work together, not just to support each other, but to share benefits. We can only advance together".