Accra — West Africa's Transport Ministers have made wide-ranging proposals for the improvement of the operating environment for airlines in the region, to enhance their viability and competitiveness, and maximize their contributions to regional integration.
The proposals are the outcomes of a high-level meeting of the ministers and chief executives of airlines in the region towards the creation of a common regional air transport market through the adoption of appropriate legal texts. The meeting agreed that the texts should provide a common regulatory regime in West Africa, in air transport regulations, approval of carriers, tariffs, liability in accidents, competition and exemption, aviation safety, compensation for denied boarding, ground handling and slot allocation, among others.
In the six-point resolution, the ministers also made specific proposals to address aviation safety, security and environmental issues facing the sector through the delineation of responsibilities between Member States and the ECOWAS Commission.
This is to enable the region to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards in these areas. In order to mitigate the challenges of the lack of transport infrastructure, investment and heavy operational costs, lack of cooperation among regional airlines and issues of frequencies and traffic rights, the meeting called for collaboration between the ECOWAS Commission, Member States and airlines in the region to ensure the full implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision on the liberalization of air transport market in Africa.
The resolutions will also assist the region address the issues of regulation of competition rules, training of aviation personnel, unification of airspace, certification of airports, reduction of taxes and other charges towards reducing the airlines' operational costs as well as the introduction of incentives for those airlines operating non-profitable routes in the region. The meeting, convened following a 2009 directive by the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, also called for the institutionalization of an annual review meeting as a mechanism to evaluate the implementation of the proposals and the creation of an air transport unit at the Commission.
At the opening of the meeting on Monday, 24th October 2011, Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills stressed the importance of the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision, which requires the progressive elimination of non- physical barriers in the industry, particularly those linked with air traffic rights, tariffs and frequencies. The President who was represented by the Minister of Transport, Collins Dauda, blamed the problems of the sector largely on the dearth of infrastructure, poor air safety and security as well as weak cooperation among regional airlines.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, James Victor Gbeho, acknowledged that the sector had given meaning to the regional Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services, as an alternative, viable, accessible and safe transport system, given the state of the region's road and railway networks. The one-day meeting of the ministers was preceded by a two-day meeting of regional aviation experts also held in Accra whose proposals were considered by the ministers.
