72 | http://www.nomadafricamag.com | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | Issue 11
highly competitive and capital intensive.
Airlines also must abide and operate
within local and international civil aviation
laws and agreements: ”Much work still
needs to be done to ensure effective im -
plementation. This in my view includes
drafting of SAATM competition rules and
regulations, dispute resolution mecha-
nisms, and implementing provisions, in-
cluding a Joint Competition Authority”
says Airlines Association of Southern
Africa’s (ASSA) Chief Executive Chris
Zweigenthal.
“Also an Executing Agency or similar body
needs to be established to implement and
monitor the implementation of SAATM.
All states that have made the solemn
commitment need to be on the same
page and have the buy-in of their airlines
to make this successful. In my view, the
ground rules ensuring fair reciprocity both
in terms of rights and value opportunities
need to be agreed for all participants.”
Plane Talking’s Linden Birns further ex-
plains: ”Right now SAATM is a set of prin-
ciples underpinned by a text, which
commits the signatory AU member states
to adopting. Unlike the European Union
(EU), the African Union (AU) does not cur-
rently enjoy any legislative powers and its
resolutions do not supersede the sover-
eign laws of its member states.”
“In order for SAATM to have a meaningful
impact, each AU member nation must
subscribe to SAATM and then follow-
through by passing enabling legislation
and regulations that allow for its imple-
mentation. This will require the replace-
ment of the current regulatory frame-
work, which relies on restrictive bilateral
air transport agreements between indi-
vidual states, with the SAATM's principles
and proposed mechanisms. In addition to
opening up Africa's skies to the conti-
nent's airlines, items such as Consumer
Protection laws will also need to be
aligned on a continent-wide basis.”
“Full implementation of SAATM will re-
quire political will and courage, which has
been notably absent ever since the cre-
ation of a single market was first proposed
in 1988 by the AU's predecessor, the Or-
ganisation of African Unity (OAU), at its
summit in Yamoussoukro.”
In simple terms it means that although
signatories have committed to SAATM,
ratification and legalisation still has to
happen and be entrenched in each coun-
try in order to bind each participating
state to SAATM properly. This could mean
the mutual scrapping or amending of cur-
rent bilateral air transport agreements be-
tween countries, and replacing them with
the new SAATM framework. As the saying
goes, Timbuktu was not built in one day
meaning that full implementation of
SAATM could take many years to say the
least.
Other key questions remain: why has it
taken so long, i.e. 1988 - 2018 (30 years),
from intent to ready, set go in terms of
formal implementation? Also, why have
only 23 out of 55 African states committed
to SAATM?
Interestingly, we asked industry players to
speculate, why only 23 nations have com -mitted at this point in time. Air Botswana
spokesperson Thabiso Leshoai: “Most
African countries do not have enough fi-
nancial resources to capitalise their airlines
(mostly owned by government) to enable
them to effectively compete. In my spec-
ulation, countries want to subscribe to
SAATM after improving their airlines,
hence the delay.”
Rodger Foster from Airlink is a bit more
specific: “There are 55 political boundaries,
55 sets of Civil Aviation Regulations and
Technical Standards, 55 sets of Air Serv-
ices and Licensing Legislation, 55 different
Civil Aviation Authorities, 55 sets of Com -
petitions legislation.”
“It is not up to the airlines to participate in
liberalisation but rather their State Aero-
nautical Authority. Airlines are designated
by their State to operate traffic rights be-
tween countries.
Where there has been coordination and
harmonising in the national interest as in
the instance of Ethiopia, the national car-
rier has benefitted handsomely. However,
in most cases, airlines have not been able
to derive benefit.”
AASO Chief Executive Chris Zweigenthal:
“Some airlines may be concerned at the
potential impact of liberalisation on their
operation, and will need to develop
strategies to maybe change their business
model and get to a position of taking ad-
vantage of new business and market op-
portunities made available by this
initiative.”
“Certain states and their airlines, frus-
trated by the delay in implementation ofThe SAATM will facilitate improved air access
between South Africa and key destinations within
other African states. However, the net
beneficiaries of the SAATM will be those airlines
predisposed to a geographic advantage in terms of being
able to access global markets whilst gaining access to
economically buoyant markets within Southern Africa that
without SAATM they would not have access to.”- Rodger Foster, Chief Executive Officer, Airlink