To travel the 1,000 kilometers between Libreville and Bangui, it takes at best nine hours and $1,000, just one example of how expensive air travel in Africa is, due to protectionist and high taxes. In Europe, a Paris-Madrid flight – an equivalent distance – lasts two hours and is five times cheaper.
But, unlike Europe, “travel in Africa is very difficult,” laments Moses Munga, a construction consultant met at Nairobi airport, while waiting for his flight to Ghana. Like him, Ahmed Mekewi travels as part of his work. “I would have difficulty traveling on my own,” confides this 29-year-old Kenyan engineer: “The cost of traveling to Africa is very high. »
Unlike Europe which opened its market in the 1990s, “there is not yet a unified African air market”, explains an expert in the African air sector, who requested anonymity due to his functions. “In Europe, Air France, for example, can make as many flights as it wants to Germany, Belgium, Spain or Portugal. This freedom (…) does not exist inside Africa” for African companies, explains this expert, denouncing the parsimony with which certain States grant “traffic rights” allowing them to operate on their territory.
These restricted “traffic rights” limit the number of direct routes and frequency of flights, and make journeys longer. According to a 2021 study by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for the African Union (AU), of the 1,431 possible routes between each of the 54 AU countries, only 19% benefited a direct flight at least weekly.
“Protectionist mechanisms”
These “protectionist mechanisms” put in place by certain countries “to favor their local companies (…) hinder competition and drive up prices” of tickets, insists Linden Birns, an airline sector consultant based in South Africa. As a result, “air traffic is so expensive in Africa that it is not developing and the lines remain poorly served,” laments Guy Leitch, aeronautical analyst and publisher of the South African magazine SA Flyer. “Africa is the region [of the world] where airfare prices are by far the most expensive for travel within the continent,” notes IATA in its study.
In addition to the “restrictions” put in place by States, “the very high taxes” in Africa for the use of air navigation services or airport facilities but also the high cost of kerosene on the continent explain the price of intra-country air travel. -Africans, analyzes Robert Lisinge, head of the energy, infrastructure and services division at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Mostly imported, due to low African refining capacities, kerosene in Africa is “often 30% more expensive than elsewhere, including in the airports of oil-producing countries”, confirms the African expert who requested anonymity.
Yamoussoukro decision in 1999 on the liberalization of the air market in Africa, then Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM, in English) in 2018… Liberalization projects are struggling to be implemented. “The idea of SAATM is to lift [the] restrictions,” explains Robert Lisinge: “If you liberalize the market, it will increase the number of [air] connections and bring down costs. » But “there remain many bilateral agreements relating to air services and many restrictions” which prevent companies from operating “as many flights as they want, with aircraft of the capacity of their choice”.
Need for intra-African trade
Another 2014 IATA study covering twelve countries (three in each of the continent’s sub-regions) concluded that liberalizing the air market between these countries would increase traffic by 81%. Removing barriers between these twelve countries would generate $1.3 billion in additional economic activity and help create 155,000 jobs, she concluded.
Current constraints “make business difficult,” confirms Moses Munga, the construction consultant. “When you have found a client and are preparing a quote, you have to include the high cost of travel. (…) Not everyone is able to take it on and we [sometimes] have to abandon certain contracts,” he explains.
“Africa is vast, road connections are relatively poor” and rail lines are few in number, recalls Mr. Lisinge, referring to the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLCAF) project: “Air transport is necessary to transport perishable goods and traders, but also the experts that intra-African trade will need. »