70 | http://www.nomadafricamag.com | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | Issue 11
“No doubt SAATM will also spur industry
consolidation, mergers, acquisitions and
the creation of alliances as the industry's
survival in a fast growth phase is depend-
ent on rapidly achieving economies of
scale. This will require proactive measures
by national government regulators in re-
forming airline ownership and control reg-
ulations, which currently place ceilings on
foreign shareholdings and management
personnel.” A knowledgeable glimpse into
the future built on years of industry expe-
rience.
Chief Executive Chris Zweigenthal from
the Airlines Association of Southern Africa
(AASA) added:
“The opportunity for unlimited frequen-cies would assist those states that have
possibly had Bilateral Air Service Agree-
ments (BASA's) with limited frequency
availability to further develop the market
between the two states.”
“In addition, opportunities exist to operate
fifth freedom rights including a third des-
tination, even a destination that is not
served by current airline operations. This
all opens up the possibility of introducing
flights between new city pairs and also in-
creasing frequencies on existing routes.
Airlines will therefore be able to develop
strategies around satisfying market de-
mand between these markets without
constraints in the medium and long term.
As more states join the SAATM, the op-portunity to open up many more city
pairs and markets will increase. Opening
up the market will provide new and more
travel options for tourists to visit various
states, some possibly not served previ-
ously. Tourism and business travel should
increase.”
There has been mostly positive praise
with the signing of SAATM. The Interna-
tional Air Transport Association (IATA)
welcomed the launch of the Single African
Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative
by the African Union (AU) to open up
Africa’s skies and improve intra-African air
connectivity as well.
“The SAATM has the potential for re-
markable transformation that will buildUnder the current regime of restrictive bilateral
air transport agreements, cross-border airline
flights must either originate or terminate in their
home country. SAATM envisages unrestricted
access and operations between any points on the continent,
without flights having to start or end in the airline's home
nation.”- Linden Birns, Managing Director, Plane Talking.