A Consultative meeting of air transport experts has called on the ECOWAS Commission to assist in the creation of conducive environment for the operation of airlines within the region, by facilitating the improvement of infrastructure, equipment, technology and reduction of taxes.

Rising from a meeting for the creation of a Viable Airline Industry in the region on Monday 27 June 2011, the experts also recommended that the Commission should encourage the governments of Member States to accelerate the granting of air traffic rights to eligible airlines of ECOWAS Member States so as to create a fully liberalized air transport regime within the region and toward the evolution of a Common African Air Transport Market.

"ECOWAS should support ASKY (a private regional airline) in its path to form cooperation with airlines in ECOWAS Member States; pooling of resources, maintenance, rationalization their schedules, interline agreement, code- sharing as well as accepting each others' passengers during flight cancellation," the meeting recommended.

ASKY started operation in January 2010 with operational headquarters in Lome Togo, with Ethiopian Airline, one of its share holders providing management and technical assistance. The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), ECOBANK and UEMOA also have shares in ASKY.

The experts urged ECOWAS to create the conditions to enable the creation of viable airlines including low-cost carriers, encourage cooperation among existing airlines by bringing them together for consultative meetings as well as facilitate a build up of ASKY to further enhance its viability "so that it can be used as a success story of regional integration."

They also urged ECOWAS and Member State to explore ways of assisting airlines that operate on non-profitable routes or creation of Public Service Obligation routes. This could be in the form of discounts/waivers of charges to encourage them to increase flight frequencies.

Furthermore, the experts urged ECOWAS to encourage Member States to ratify the Cape Town Convention and Protocol and regional airlines to acquire new generation aircraft towards meeting ICAO standards on aviation safety and security.

In addition, they urged ECOWAS to consider the establishment of common institutions for training of personnel in air transport and the creation of maintenance centres so as to strengthen regional capacity.

Opening the meeting, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho listed the myriad challenges facing the air transport sector in the region, including insufficient connections among the capitals, proliferation of small airlines, lack of coordination of flight schedules, deterioration of infrastructure, insufficient financial resources and comparatively high rate of accidents.

While noting that private initiatives had evolved to fill the gap created by the collapse of the multinational airline Air Afrique and national carriers, the President explained that the consultative meeting was in response to the Decision of the 36th ordinary session of the ECOWAS' Authority of Heads of State and Government urging the Commission to institutionalize the meeting of Directors General of Civil Aviation and Airlines in seeking solutions to the airline industry problems.

Two meetings of Directors General of Civil Aviation Authorities and other stakeholders were recently held in Ghana and Togo, he said, and informed the experts that a High-level meeting is scheduled to take place in Accra in July 2011 as part of the Commission's continuing pursuit for a viable airline industry in ECOWAS region.

"The ECOWAS Vision 2020 for the air transport sector is to develop a sound and seamless regional air transport system with safe, reliable, efficient and affordable air services, well connected within West Africa and integrated with the global network," the ECOWAS chief affirmed.

"This is in compliance with the rules and regulations of the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision for the liberalization of air transport markets in Africa," President Gbeho said.

"The successful development of air transport in West Africa will enable our member States to fast-tract their socio-economic development through easier access to their territories and resources, to consolidate their international and trade relations with donors and partners as well as to reduce the negative effect of famine, war and epidemics by rapid conveyance of foodstuffs and medicines," he added.

In his opening remarks, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Mr Celestin Talaki, noted that air transport has a major role to play in the acceleration of socio-economic development and the consolidation of integration of the region.

He however, noted that the proliferation of small airlines in the region was contrary to the global trend that has seen more alliances and cooperation by airlines in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The meeting featured interactive discussions and formal presentations by EBID and ASKY.