Inbound international flights to some major tourist destinations of Africa are increasing, through there are still those that are currently pessimistic about endorsing travel to this ever attractive continental destination where some countries including Zimbabwe and South Africa continue to make commendable steps towards containing resurgent viruses. Nomad Africa Magazine’s Senior Writer Martin Chemhere had an exclusive interview with the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) to establish the real facts about the current situation.
Nomad Africa Magazine: Based on the recent and ongoing entry/re-entry of major global airlines into Africa is this a sign of a better future for the continent’s air space and tourism industry?
African Airlines Association: Since September 2020, we have seen a restart of traffic after the reopening of borders. However, the reopening of international routes is progressive. Important to note is that intra Africa traffic is restarting quicker compared to other regions in the world.
However, the African continent continues to witness a significant increase in the number of Covid 19 cases. At the same time, the Delta variant continues to be a threat to the safe and smooth reopening of borders. The situation seems to be getting out of control especially in South Africa where daily infection is slowing but still of concern. Some African governments are resorting to lockdowns again.
As the testing capacities continue to improve, coupled with digitization of health protocols and the expected vaccination reach into Africa, the confidence in travelling and traffic demand is being re-established.
Before the Covid19, Africa Air Transport was one of the fastest growing regions. We are confident that the growth rate will resume post Covid. In fact, Covid19 is an opportunity to better prepare our industry to take on the benefits of this growth.
Nomad Africa Magazine: Does the increase in inbound air services indicate confidence in Africa’s fight against Covid 19?
African Airlines Association: Europe is the first intercontinental destination from Africa (56%). Airlines continue to restart their operations on international routes. May 2021 saw a resumption of 62.5% of international routes compared to the pre-Covid period, recovery further improved to 72.7% in June 2021 and 74.7% in July 2021. Some countries have been easing travel restrictions to facilitate the movement of people and tourists across borders. There is however concern that this positive trend may be reversed in subsequent months if the rate of Covid-19 infections continues to soar. On the outbound side, due to the EU restrictions, few African airlines are flying to Europe. The flight frequencies to Europe have also been reduced significantly due to the decline in traffic demand arising from the travel restrictions and reduced traveller confidence. The recent quarantine requirements by many European states is impacting the level of traffic between Africa and Europe. Only residents from Rwanda are authorized to travel to Europe as a consequence of the EU travel ban.
The harmonization and mutual recognition of health protocols across countries and streamlining of health screening processes by governments and operators is necessary for an efficient restart of the industry. AFRAA is part of the multi-sector Africa High Level Task Force that is chaired by the Africa CDC to serve as an advisory body for the “Saving Lives, Economies, and Livelihoods” campaign. Under the ongoing work of the Task Force, several calls-to-action are in place:
- Call to Action for travel entry and exit requirements
– Call for States to consider applying alternative measures to border closure and mandatory quarantine through instituting and strengthening the recommended non-pharmaceutical public health and social measures before, during and after travel.
– Call for the harmonization of alternative measures to allow mutual recognition and trust in the information shared among Member States about travellers.
– Call for States to consider alternative testing protocol for travel that uses the rapid diagnostic antigen test in situations where PCR testing is not readily available or where result turnaround time is long.
– Call for States not to impose COVID-19 vaccination certificates as a mandatory travel entry and exit requirement until there is satisfactory access to vaccines globally, reasonable vaccination coverage is attained and sufficient evidence and guidance on the use of the vaccine for travel is available based on temporary recommendations of the 6th WHO IHR emergency committee.
- Maintaining safe public health corridor before, during and after travel
Call to States to remain vigilant to all applicable regulations, laws, guidelines and standards issued by national and international authorities aiming to minimize infection and to maintain a safe public health corridor during travel. Specifically, all State Parties should ensure that preventive measures are observed at all times.
- Compliance to multinational treaties and regulations
Reminder to countries to comply with the international treaties signed by State Parties that protect governments, authorities and travellers. Specifically, African Union Member States are reminded to comply with article 40 of the International Health Regulations (2005), which requires State Parties to not charge travellers for interventions meant to protect public health. The Call to Action has been circulated to the respective Ministries and Heads of State of African States and work is underway across different levels to ensure the recommendations are carried out.
Nomad Africa Magazine: Is it too early to say that Africa’s tourism future looks from this early air space activity and interest?
African Airlines Association: The pace of rebound of Africa’s tourism greatly depends on the effectiveness of the measures to contain the pandemic and safely reopen the borders. The different levels of vaccination rates across the continent will impact the pace of lifting of travel restrictions with more stringent travel restrictions being imposed on countries with high number of infections.
Vaccines, coupled with testing and the current health measures in place, present the most efficient way out of this pandemic. It is therefore vital that the vaccine roll-out campaign in Africa is expedited equitably with the prime objective of achieving the herd immunity or that level of vaccination which inhibits the ability of the virus to circulate in the population.
AFRAA calls for the adoption of globally interoperable digital health passes. We encourage African States to adopt any form of globally interoperable digital health pass or certificate, approved by the World Health Organization that will seamlessly integrate into testing and travel processes of the different stakeholders of the air travel industry.
Nomad Africa Magazine: What does these early activities do for a continent like Africa?
African Airlines Association: Travel and tourism are major contributors to economic development in Africa. Africa’s travel and tourism sectors employ some 24.3 million people on the African continent and contribute $194.2 billion to Africa’s economy combined, representing 8.5% of the continent’s GDP. These two sectors are interrelated and need to be supported by States and all concerned stakeholders to lead to the wider economic and social recovery of the African continent.
It is on this backdrop that AFRAA and UNWTO have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to combine their efforts to strengthen the symbiotic relationship between the aviation and tourism sectors. AFRAA and UNWTO will cooperate closely and consult each other on matters and/or activities of mutual interest to achieve various common objectives such as the mitigation of the negative impact of the COVID-19 on the aviation and stimulation of the recovery of the travel and tourism sectors.
Nomad Africa Magazine: How timely are these activities for the broader African tourism industry?
African Airlines Association: While the primary focus on safe reopening of borders and the industry restart, industry stakeholders need to address the other hurdles that Africa faces to meet its potential. These include:
- Visa restrictions: Unfortunately, in 2020 46% of Africans still needed a visa to travel to another African country compared to 50% in 2019 while Visa on arrival is adopted by 32 countries across Africa. The AUC Free Movement Protocol is aimed to improve the situation.
- High-cost operating environment: Taxes and fees generally represent more than 50% of airlines’ most affordable base fares, and more than 25% of total ticket price. Aviation stakeholders are advocating for a reduction of taxes, Charges and fees which are hindering the growth of traffic. AFRAA will host a 5-day LAB in 2022 to bring stakeholders together to collectively seek out-of-the-box solutions for sustainability of air transport industry.
- Liberalisation of African skies: Successful implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) will positively impact connectivity, trade, and tourism, and job creation, reduce customer’s journey and waiting times (20%), reduce fares (30-50%) making Air Transport accessible to more African citizen and above all, improve African Airlines’ profitability. The liberalization of the air transport industry will create a more regionally integrated continent. The AfCFTA is a great opportunity to transform Africa’s economy. Its operationalization could boost the Intra Africa trade by 52% by 2022.
- Infrastructure: The potential growth of Air Transport on the continent requires adequate infrastructure capable to absorb new flows of traffic.
Nomad Africa Magazine: Do you have anything extra to add to this exciting development?
African Airlines Association: As we navigate through these unprecedented difficult times, stakeholders in the travel ecosystem need to take well-coordinated and appropriate actions to support an efficient recovery and to ensure survival of the industry.
AFRAA, as the leading trade Association of African Airlines, we have responded rapidly by taking necessary initiatives and actions in close collaboration with key air transport institutions, partners and stakeholders to find workable solutions for resilience to the pandemic and for post recovery efforts.
It is likely that nothing will be as before. The crisis is an opportunity for rebuilding Africa’s aviation to make a system more resilient and more sustainable. Two main take away points: First, we need to establish a permanent dialogue between all aviation stakeholders, national authorities and African institutions to manage the sector’s challenges. Second, we need to pursue the implementation of the AU 2063 flagship projects: SAATM, AfCFTA, Free Movement Protocol to sustain the aviation sector. Doing so, the sector will be more resilient and better at crisis management.
