African countries urged to open up their skies to save local airlines from potential collapse

The Republic of Congo President Dennis Sassou Nguesso has called on the continent to comply with the Yamoussoukro declaration to open up their skies to African Airlines.

The President said only interdependence and cooperation would save African Airlines from being strangled by international carriers that dominate air transport in Africa by up to 80 per cent.

He announced that the Republic of Congo would implement the Yamoussoukro declaration signed by 44 African nations 15 years ago.

”Aspire for a single African aviation market to survive the international onslaught lest you are forced out of business by the mightier airlines from the West and Gulf States,” he said yesterday when he officially opened the 47th Annual General Assembly of African Airlines Association (Afraa) in Brazzaville.

Nguesso urged African aviation companies to combine forces to share operational costs that make tickets expensive. “African nations must desist from levying too many taxes on the aviation industry as this impacts negatively on our struggling airlines,” the President said. Nguesso announced plans to make Brazzaville’s Maya Maya international airport the hub of air transport in Central Africa.

Afraa’s outgoing president Madame Fatima Beyina Moussa who is the Director General of the host Equatorial Congo Airlines (ECAir) said the association was committed to realising open African skies and a single African Aviation market by 2017.

She announced that Kenya Airways and ECAir had agreed to collaborate in the near future.

The outgoing International Air Transport Association Director General and Chief Executive Tony Taylor said Africa needs a safe, efficient and affordable air transport to benefit the people.