Failure to honour bilateral pacts stifling African aviation — Al-Awadhi

•Says taxes, policy bottlenecks    threaten aviation in Africa

•Urges more govt action on safety

By Dickson Omobola

At the just concluded 82nd International Air Transport Association, IATA, Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Regional Vice President for Africa and Middle East at IATA, Kamil Al-Awadhi, ranked Nigeria and Afghanistan as one of the most difficult places to establish and sustain an airline business due to the high operating costs. Beyond that, while addressing newsmen, he also shared insights on reasons African countries need to implement the Single African Air Transport Market, SAATM, and the financial challenges facing African airlines, among other issues. Excerpts:

On improving air travel between the Caribbean and Africa

This falls into a completely different subject, which is called Single African Air Transport Market, SAATM. It has to involve everybody else. I think Africa needs to sort itself out before it starts looking globally. I think Africa needs to start fixing itself when it comes to bilateral agreements between the 54 states, and honouring the agreements because some of them do have the agreements, but they do not honour them, and then start looking outside Africa.

On how African carriers can cushion the impact of the rising cost of fuel due to the Middle East conflict

The problem with Africa is that it did not have, because of the availability of fuel coming out of the Hormuz, big storage. It did not need it because within a week, fuel was coming from the GCT into Africa. I think, if anything, the one lesson that Africa should consider is increasing its storage capability just in case this disruption is applied. Otherwise, I think if you look, there is not a country currently reporting shortage of fuel or availability of fuel. The first month and a bit, yes, there was. There were countries scrambling for fuel for tomorrow. Airlines were scrambling for fuel. I think today, the supply chain has been reassured from different locations and they have adapted quite well. Down the road, I do not know, because the Hormuz Straits is still closed, so it could impact down the road. But I think if we can say something for sure, I think the summer schedule is pretty much secured right now.

Africa’s priority

There are two particular priorities that I have singled out here: improving safety and making aviation more affordable. On improving safety, you can see that, actually, Africa improved in 2025, and quite a significant improvement. I think that’s a positive first step, but we are not there yet. I mean, although we should be thanking ourselves and saying, this is great, we still remain at 7.86 accidents per million flights, which is way higher than the rest of the globe. We are engaged with most of Africa on all the issues related to safety, but more is needed from government entities to play a role in improving safety.

On the financial challenges that Africa faces, the first one is profitability. With waiver-thin profit margins, anything that can happen in your daily operations will take you into the negative. Unfortunately, that is the way it is in Africa, and it is predominantly because of the unbelievable charges and costs to operate in Africa, whether you are looking at the fuel, the charges for the infrastructure, the maintenance costs and financing of aircraft. If you want to lease an aircraft, it is far more expensive, taxes, charges, levies and so on.

Across Africa, the momentum is building up, this is a positive message. You can see Africa changing, you can see it is evolving, you can see it improving, but it is just, in my opinion, not fast enough and not good enough. But the intent is there, and the capability is in Africa definitely, which is just a matter of having collaboration with the relative stakeholders and getting governmental part of the stakeholders to understand the value of aviation.

If you look at government policy support required to unlock the opportunities in aviation in Africa, the first thing I noticed over the last five years is getting the relative Ministry of Finance or Transport and so on to understand how much aviation contributes to the economy of a country. Actually, that is probably the biggest roadblock that I have noticed, because you will find that, for instance, the Transport Ministry would understand, but the Finance Ministry would not, and so the Finance Ministry would come up with new regulations that actually hamper the growth of the aviation industry in that particular country. Then there is the oversight, which is always shocking to me. 

The other thing, obviously, in Africa is the unbelievable charges, taxes, levies and so on. For instance, you see Tanzania adding an Advance Passenger Information, API, Passenger Name Record, PNR, charge, which is $45 one way, whereas world standards are about $1.6. I don’t understand why Tanzania is trying to milk a security requirement that they are obligated to do and charge it all to the airlines at $45 one way. So, they effectively added $90 for a round trip in and out of Tanzania, which is completely unacceptable. Of course, there is a need to get African government to understand that they should prioritise aviation because it does contribute to the state.

On high operating costs and IATA’s role, especially in Africa

Yes, the charges are higher in Africa, the costs are higher to operate. It starts from trying to get money to buy the aircraft, which is more expensive. If you lease an aircraft in Africa, it is more expensive. The landing, the parking, the flyover charges and the API, PNR charges, among others, are ridiculously high in Africa. Then you have things like the fuel, which is far more expensive in Africa than anywhere else in the world. Maintenance costs, availability of spares and supply chain are the same thing. There are stuffs you can’t control or can’t negotiate on. If the fuel has gone up, it contributes to about 30 or 40 per cent of the cost of an airline right now, there is nothing IATA can do about that. However, when you have a country that charges $45 API PNR when it should not exceed $1.6 or $1.8, then that is ridiculous. So, we try to educate decision makers on what the costs are.

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