Early this month it was reported that a major local airline lost the right to carry passengers between Lusaka and Lilongwe.
Whatever the wider political considerations that informed this decision, passengers on this route will lose as they now have less options with the attendant worse service and higher prices linked to reduced competition.
This protectionist behaviour has a rich history since the early days of aviation. For a country to truly have independent authority over itself, it needed to control its territory including its airspace.
Additionally, certain countries had a heads tart in the nascent aviation industry and many nations felt it necessary to establish rules that gave local airlines a chance to get a foothold in the market. Consequently certain freedoms of the air were established.
The simplest first freedom simply allows a foreign airlines to overfly your territory. As basic as this right sounds, it has been rescinded in the past as when many African governments denied South African Airways this freedom as a protest against apartheid.
The privileges increase until the fifth freedom that adds the ability to ferry passengers and cargo from one country to another that is not the home base of the airline.
Before airlines could be granted any of the freedoms, air service agreements had to be signed between the two countries.
Because most countries also operated flag carriers, these agreements usually served to protect the interests of both parties giving airlines from both countries a fair chance to succeed.
As a result, these contracts usually contained restrictions as to which cities airlines could serve, frequencies and even type of plane. By not allowing market forces to freely dictate airline decisions, these rules made air travel worse for everyone.
Recognising the role that aviation played in the wider economy, countries started implementing open skies programmes. These removed much of the limitations imposed by previous treaties.
This means nothing if you can’t get a landing slot or the FAA deems your airport to be less developed.
Despite the protections afforded by this setup, Africa has stubbornly lagged other continents in the growth of the aviation industry.
Of course there are the usual scourges of corruption, poor infrastructure and the like. However, given enough incentives it is expected that a few African champions will emerge.
Thus, the nations of this great continent met in the Ivory Coast city of Yamoussoukro to sign an agreement that would give priority to African carriers.
More than a decade later, African airlines are languishing far behind their European and Middle East colleagues in most traffic metrics.
For a start, despite signing the declaration, most countries have done nothing to implement it.
Even more shockingly, Africans that never miss an opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot, have actually granted more fifth freedom rights to foreign carriers than local airlines. And that is why we remain the dark continent.
The Author is a pilot with an international airline.
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