Accra — Transport and Aviation Ministers in West Africa have been urged to work out innovative mechanisms to overcome the challenges militating against the viability of regional airlines whose operations have been dogged by infrastructure deficit, poor air safety and security as well as weak cooperation.
In a message to the opening of a high-level meeting of the ministers and the chief executives of regional airlines in Accra on Friday, 24th October 2011, Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills said such innovations should improve the environment for private sector participation through the removal of non- physical barriers to investment in this sector. In addition, the President urged the participants to propose new financing mechanisms for the development and strengthening of the industry, including the possibility of establishing a leasing company as well as the best tools for promoting cooperation among airlines in the region. This is to enhance the airlines' competitiveness and profitability in the global market.
President Atta Mills whose message was delivered by Ghana's Minister of Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda, highlighted the importance of the sector to the economic and physical integration of the region and by extension the socio- economic development of Member States. "It also plays a significant role in the promotion and strengthening of ECOWAS' regional integration agenda", he said, noting that in spite of the constraints to the sector over the last 50 years, it has "brought West African countries closer, linking most of the capital cities of Member Stares to the rest of the continent and contributed to the expansion and deepening of intra- African trade and tourism". President Mills canvassed the need for African countries to comply faithfully with the provisions of the Yamoussoukro Decision of 2000 on the liberalization of the air transport markets which requires the progressive elimination of non- physical barriers in the industry, particularly those linked with air traffic rights, tariffs, frequencies and the capacities of air services. He said that in spite of the noble objectives of the Yamoussoukro Decision, some African countries were yet to fully implement its provisions, a situation he blamed on protectionist instincts largely "because of the fear of their local aviation industry having to compete with foreign airlines".
Contrary to this fear, the President urged those countries that have not done so to fully implement the Decision as it would result in considerable increase in the volume and frequency of flights within the region. In his speech, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, James Victor Gbeho, said the industry has given meaning to the regional Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services by providing an alternative for viable, accessible and safe transport, given the state of the region's road and railway networks. "Unfortunately, however, air transport is turning out to be yet another Achilles heel of free movement", he said, noting that this was behind the ongoing initiatives by the Commission, Member States and the operators to address the problems of the sector. He said the meeting is intended to seek the ministers' endorsement of the strategies that have been painstakingly put together by an earlier meeting of aviation experts towards ensuring a viable airline industry in the region.
"The insights and profound knowledge of our regional experts were instrumen tal in putting together the strategy we are about to deliberate upon at the expert-level meeting here on Accra", the President affirmed. He noted that a viable air transport system would fast-track the region's socio-economic development through easier access within the ECOWAS space, thereby fostering improved intra- regional trade, resource exploitation and service delivery. Such a system, he said, will not only translate the slogan of an "ECOWAS of the People" into reality by promoting Community citizenship but will also facilitate the region's rapid and effective integration into the global market.
With the collapse of some national airlines, the President said the region now lacks reliable and affordable air links between Member States resulting in dependence on "under resourced small and medium-sized airlines saddled with obsolete technology, high operating costs, poor management, a heavy debt burden and the inability to compete internationally".
It was in response to these challenges that the Heads of State and Government directed the convening of chief executives of airlines and directors-general of civil aviation to propose concrete solutions. The one-day meeting of the ministers will consider the proposals by a preceding two-day of regional aviation experts which was also held in Accra from 21st to 22nd October 2011.
