I was recently asked during a live interview if it was the case that intra-African flights were pricier than flights from outside the continent and why?  I am no expert on the aviation industry and this question took me by surprise but it does raise some valid points that affect tourism in Africa. Air transport, of course, plays a vital role in our African continent and is one of the driving forces behind regional integration and development.

So what are the facts? After some research, I discovered that, despite its size and massive population, Africa only accounts for a mere 3% of the world’s air transport. Annual passenger travel in Africa is estimated at around 40 million, just 2% of the world total. There are over 300 registered airlines employing around 600 000 within Africa’s airline industry.

But the skies are not as blue or ‘open’ as they should be as under the superbly named Yamoussoukro Decision, where countries were supposed to deregulate air services, opening up markets to international competition. But sadly that initiative appears to have stalled, leaving a complex system that protects the interests of African governments and discourages competition. In many cases, governments directly assist in the growth of their own flag carriers. As a result, any competitors intending to set up other locally registered airlines may be prohibited from doing so, or at best be heavily regulated to avoid direct competition. Even where privately run airlines are allowed, the flag carriers may still be accorded priority, especially in the apportionment of aviation rights to local or international markets.

There are three main hubs in sub-Saharan Africa: Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Johannesburg,  and from their hubs, without significant competition, the local state-owned or part-owned airlines can charge what they want for the internal sectors.

Tourism in sub-Saharan Africa has also suffered following the withdrawal over the last few years of direct routes by British Airways and KLM (Lusaka and Dar es Salaam) leaving countries like Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania without direct flights from UK and other European capitals. This means that tourists travelling from the UK, for example, have little choice but to travel to one of these hubs and then take a costly internal flight to their chosen destination, often more expensive than the first sector from Europe to Africa.

Into the melting pot comes a number of low-cost carriers, some of which are subsidiaries of national airlines, others like fastjet, are modelled on the successful European formula. They hope that an affluent African middle class is growing, which will spread wealth more widely than in the past and local cross-border tourist and business traffic will increase substantially over the next 10 years. Still, low-cost carriers only account for 12% of seat capacity and some recent failures must raise the question “Are cheap, low-cost airfares sustainable in Africa?”.

There are also plans afoot to create regional hubs in East and Southern Africa to break the log jam. One example would be the purchase by Ethiopian Airways of 49% of the defunct Air Malawi, which could well improve the prospects of a southern hub in that region. Close by, another star will soon shine brightly following the US$150 million Chinese-funded expansion of Victoria Falls Airport with an extended runway able to accommodate wide-body aircraft,  the Airbus A340, Boeing 777 and Boeing 747.

Tourism, the world’s largest industry is rapidly becoming one of the most important and lucrative businesses on the continent and the development of this sector should be a high priority for many African governments. It is vital that governments recognise the importance of aviation as a key to growth, engaging in strategic partnerships that will allow global airline alliances and brands to establish themselves across Africa through a policy of ‘open skies’. Then perhaps, as the song goes ‘there will be nothing but blue skies from then on’.