The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) is joining the Focus Africa Initiative of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), it was announced on Wednesday. IATA and AFRAA will also renew a joint work programme, which will strengthen their collaboration. (IATA is the global airlines association.)

“AFRAA and IATA share a common vision – the development of a safe, secure and sustainable aviation industry in Africa that facilitates business, trade, and tourism and contributes positively to Africa’s economic growth and development,” highlighted AFRAA secretary general Abderahmane Berthé. “AFRAA fully supports and encourages collaboration in tackling the challenges and threats to the sustainability of Africa’s air transport sector. By joining IATA and the other Focus Africa partners we can help propel this initiative which will deliver widespread social and economic benefits.”

Focus Africa is intended to maximise aviation’s contribution to development, all across the continent, through better service to both passengers and goods shippers. The initiative embraces both private sector and public sector stakeholders, all of whom have committed to achieving measurable improvements in six key areas. These are, in IATA’s order: safety, infrastructure, connectivity, finance and distribution, sustainability, and skills development.

“AFRAA strengthens the Focus Africa coalition as we work to increase aviation’s role in Africa’s development,” affirmed IATA regional VP for Africa and the Middle East Kamil Al Awadhi. “This has enormous promise. The continent is home to the world’s most rapidly growing population but accounts for just 2% of air passenger and cargo transport activity. The road to realising aviation’s potential will be long. But with the strong partnerships committed to Focus Africa, we can, and we will realise the needed change.”

The AFRAA/IATA joint work programme has five main components. The first of these (in the order given by IATA) is for the two bodies to work together with governments to implement the Single African Air Transport Market, by firstly getting the 23 countries that have agreed to do so, to actually ratify the accord, and secondly, to encourage other countries to join it, as well.

Second on the list is to free the airline funds whose repatriation has been blocked by several African governments. Although significant amounts of such funds have been liberated in recent years, by working with the respective governments, $1.5-billion in airline funds still remain blocked in Africa.   

Listed third is improving operational safety. All IATA member airlines are on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) register and all AFRAA members are on the IOSA or the IATA Standard Safety Assessment registers. The two associations will jointly encourage African governments to use the IOSA in their safety oversight operations.

Next is addressing the problem of the higher than global average aviation user charges in Africa. Such charges across the continent are 8% above the global average. IATA and AFRAA will seek to get African governments to focus on the longer-term socioeconomic benefits of aviation. Such efforts have already led to cuts in aviation charges in Chad, Côte d’Ivoire and Zambia.

The fifth area is supporting compliance with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. This scheme is a crucial component of the commitment, agreed to by the industry and governments, to achieve net-zero aviation carbon emissions by 2050.