The African Airlines Association concluded its 46th Annual General Assembly and summit in Algiers, Algeria with a call for States, airlines, service companies, airports, opinion leaders and indeed all the stakeholders to embrace the opening of African skies and the development of intra-African connectivity.
To facilitate this, all stakeholders were urged to play their part towards the single African aviation market before it is too late. The three-day conference which was held under the high patronage of His Excellency Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, was held under the theme “Winning Together through Innovation and Collaboration” and was attended by over 360 high profile delegates from 45 countries across the world. Opening the 46th AGA and Summit, Honourable Ammar Ghoul, the Minister of Transport of the Republic of Algeria, called upon African airlines to forge strong partnerships amongst themselves in order to broaden their networks in the face of stiff competition.
He encouraged airlines to develop intra-African networks and added that the Government of Algeria on its part was fully supporting its national carrier, Air Algérie, in its Strategic Development Plan 2013/2017. Under this plan, Air Algérie was in the process of acquisition of 16 new aircraft which are part of its strategic objective to develop its African network to cover more destinations in the near future such as South Africa, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Chad. Mr. Mohamed Salah Boultif, President of AFRAA and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Algérie who chaired the proceedings of the three-day event, expressed confidence in his welcome remarks that African airlines could successfully intensify intra-African connectivity as long as they commit to implementing policies for free and voluntary cooperation amongst themselves.
He added that, “We must accelerate the pace of the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision while at the same time promoting a community convergent approach towards the implementation of realistic and effective mechanisms capable of guaranteeing the airlines that they will be the main beneficiaries of the liberalization process.” On industry taxes and charges, Mr. Boultif urged States to contribute to infrastructure development and to participate in the lowering of operating costs of airlines by reducing taxes, charges and fees on passengers, fuel and other services which remain the highest in comparison to the world averages.