An African airline lobby suggests urgent wider adoption of hop-and-pick services, seeing it as a solution to ailing carriers, and as a way to ease restrictive air travel on the continent.
This, and the expanded sharing of routes were among suggestions it wants African Union member states to implement and save operators from loss.
The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) agreed this week at the end of the African Aviation Laboratory in Nairobi. The lobby wants airlines based in Africa to fly more freely, without having to first return to their hubs. For example, they want an airline, say based in Nairobi, to ply a general route to South Africa by picking up passengers and dropping others at main airports without having to return to Nairobi for connection.
Airlines can also be allowed to fly into smaller cities of other countries without first having to land in the capitals. The lobby calls that ‘freedom flights.’ That, they argue, will allow convenience, ease cost of operations and eventually open up more skies for more people.
“We have received a number of requests from African and Europe airlines to fly direct to Mombasa and Nairobi,” Kenya Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said this week in Mombasa while inspecting state projects.
“We shall review them and give permits to boost tourism but as we do so, we are also pushing for Kenya Airways to be granted the same in different countries.”
This proposal is part of the six strategies they put forward in their declaration, mainly focusing on sharing key facilities as a means to cut cost, gain traffic in a new market, improving aircraft utilisation and providing efficient services.
AFRAA, in collaboration with the African Aviation Group, said AFRAA Secretary General, Abdérahmane Berthé, will work for the roadmap’s adoption at the next AU sitting to ensure sustainability of the air transport sector in Africa.
“The lab provides a constructive opportunity to share views and build transformative solutions necessary to address sustainability and competitiveness of Africa’s air transport. “AFRAA will continue to spearhead the Laboratory outcomes to ensure Africa achieves survival in the short-term and its sustainability in the long-term,” said Mr Berthé.
Implementation will take time as the process must first be adopted by the AU and then ratified by individual members. Aviation in Africa has suffered from high air ticket costs to long layovers at airports, making it cumbersome to connect between cities in parts of the continent. Some people often fly to another continent before returning to Africa as the connection may be faster.
The lobby also wants localised code-sharing so airlines can complete each other’s passenger trips on the same ticket. This already happens with some airlines outside Africa.
