The global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has highlighted that its next Focus Africa Conference will again be hosted by Ethiopian Airlines (which hosted the original conference in 2023) in Addis Ababa. The conference will take place on April 29 and April 30.

“Aviation has the potential to do much more to enable Africa’s economic and social development,” stressed IATA regional VP for Africa and the Middle East Kamil Alawadhi. “Improving safety, harmonising regulations, and reducing costs while increasing operational efficiency are at the top of the agenda for this edition of the IATA Focus Africa Conference. The demand to support 3% to 4% growth annually is there. Focus Africa aims to align the continent’s aviation stakeholders in taking the pragmatic steps needed to turn potential into sustainable reality.”

Since its launch four years ago, the IATA Focus Africa initiative has supported many safety programmes across the continent, introduced its Billing and Settlement Plan to Sierra Leone and South Sudan, and its Cargo Account Settlement System to the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. It has also introduced IATA’s Easy Pay system to Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Congo, Mauritius and Sierra Leone. Focus Africa has also supported the roll-out of the Advanced Passenger Information-Passenger Name Record border security system in 12 African countries.

The implementation and success of these and other programmes will be reviewed at the upcoming conference. The meeting will also identify the next essential steps that are needed to develop the African aviation industry. There will be panels, presentations and speeches covering the improvement of safety, through stronger safety standards and oversight; enhancing connectivity, by strengthening intra-African routes, supporting the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market, and harmonising regulations; and improving the efficiency of operations by streamlining processes, adopting digital innovations, and increasing value-chain cost-effectiveness.

Speakers at the conference will, in addition to Alawadhi, include government officials and association and airline CEOs. These will include (but not be limited to) Ethiopian Transport and Logistics Minister Dr Alemu Sime Feyisa, African Civil Aviation Commission secretary general Adefunke Adeyemi, African Airlines Association secretary general Abderahmane Berthe, and Airlines Association of Southern Africa CEO Aaron Munetsi.