CHALLENGES. At the Aerospace African Forum, the handicaps of air transport were pointed out, with taxes in the foreground. Unexpected perspectives present themselves.
By our special correspondent in Casablanca, Thierry Vigoreux
© ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP
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Laxation is a real handicap for African air transport, a point underlined during the first Aerospace African Forum which was held in Casablanca last week. Iata (International Airline Association), on the occasion of its 78e general assembly last June, indicated that Nigeria, Liberia as well as Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, the Republic of Congo and Niger levy the highest airport charges and taxes of all the continent. “Taxes don’t stop flights, they just put them out of reach for some people and make aviation less efficient,” said Iata Director General Willie Walsh.
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A contrasting Africa
This top ten of the most expensive airports overlaps with the Airport Charges Report data, where Niger is at the top of the ranking. At Niamey, the main airport, passengers are charged $162 on departure to African countries. Next come Monrovia (Liberia) with 145 dollars, Bissau (Guinea-Bissau) 137 dollars, Dakar (Senegal) 116 dollars, Bangui (Central Africa) 111 dollars, Freetown (Sierra Leone) 109 dollars, and Abuja (Nigeria) 100 dollars.
Addis Ababa Airport, where Ethiopian Airlines is based, has the lowest tax amount, followed by Nairobi Jomo-Kenyatta Airport which only charges $50 for international service. Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa apply taxes as a percentage of the airfare price, making it cheaper for passengers. Also low cost airlines are developing in these regions.
Another handicap of the African reality, many countries do not yet issue biometric passports, which creates a two-speed world, with or without digital. Moreover, 90% of airports are managed by “super slow state administrations”, concerned above all not to lose the slightest prerogative, in the name of security and anti-terrorism of course. During a connecting flight, the unified computer systems of three airports must communicate with each other. Difficult to achieve, underlines the manager of Istanbul airport, the busiest in Europe, with a majority of connecting flights.
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Drones, balloons, so many avenues for the future
Development possibilities exist, not always obvious and sometimes atypical, like the one presented at the Casablanca forum by Jean-Jacques Bouya, Minister of Regional Planning, Infrastructure and Road Maintenance in the Republic of Congo. In the middle of the equatorial forest, in the center of this country, we find in Ollombo, near Oyo, a modern airport with very low traffic with a runway of 3,000 meters. This is the ideal configuration for testing ambulance drones, a promising air transport formula in Africa that avoids deforestation. Initially, drones delivering medicines would provide valuable services. New air mobility techniques such as the drone or the balloon must be taken into account, underlined the participants in a round table on “Air mobility, an equation of the future for the territories? “.
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