Africa’s single aviation market: The progress so far

To promote the development of air transport at continental level several policies were introduced leading to the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) in late 1999 with liberalisation of the intra-African aviation spaces as the main objective. While at the regional level significant progress has been made towards more market oriented aviation policies, at the pan-African level some markets are still restrictive and inconsistent with YD particularly with respect to the granting of 5th freedom rights. This paper aims to examine the recent developments in the aviation sector in Africa with a focus on the implementation of the YD. The obstacles to liberalisation are discussed and several measures for facilitating the move in Africa towards multilateral open skies are investigated. These include amongst others a greater collaboration and co-operation between African airlines as well as between African and foreign airlines; redefining the role and responsibilities of the different institutions used to implement the YD and other issues such as competition and ownership guidelines.