CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

Yamoussoukro Decision, the guideline in aviation liberalisation in Africa, remains largely
unimplemented. Current active airlines fear dominance by non- African carriers in the presence
of market access denial by African countries to African airlines while the non-African airlines
are granted favourable market access. Ethiopia has ratified the Yamoussoukro Decision, and
EAL is working with African partners.
While EAL has pursued an aggressive open skies policy within and outside of Africa, the
domestic market is still heavily regulated with respect to commercial aviation. EAL provides all
the scheduled domestic flights throughout the country. The domestic airlines— Abyssinia
Flight Services, Trans-National Airways (TNA), National Airways, Zemen Flying, International
Cargo Aviation Services, Amibara and Aquarius Aviation PLC—only provide charter flight
services. Even as domestic routes are unprofitable for EAL, the government maintains tight
restrictions on domestic flight services. EAL is also the only domestic carrier that operates
international flight services. Proponents of these restrictions state that safety concerns are the
principal reason for the regulations. However, as air transport markets worldwide have become
more liberalised, there has been no direct association with lower safety standards. In a
liberalised market, carriers identify their competitive advantages and focus on them.
Liberalising air transport services in country (at least increasing the 50-seat capacity limit) could
improve accessibility throughout Ethiopia and boost competition. In studies conducted by
IATA, it was found that liberalisation has provided benefits to consumers in price
competitiveness and better flight options. Additionally, IATA has found that liberalising air
transport, particularly in the major restricted country pair routes, could increase worldwide
passenger traffic by up to 63%. 83 Lessons learnt other industries predict that the most efficient,
flexible, and responsive firms are best positioned to benefit from liberalisation.
Technical Advisory Services
A burgeoning market exists to provide technical advisory services in the air transport services
sector throughout Africa. This includes airline management, MRO, airport management, airline
ancillary services, and general management consulting. These services can be performed by
governmental organisations or private sector entities.
EAL currently provides technical assistance to other airlines on a secondment basis. EAL sends
skilled personnel to other counties to work in various airline industry tasks. However, this
model has not yet been fully exploited. As numerous African countries look to enter or re-enter
the air transport services industry, they could benefit from technical advisory or management
contract services provided by EAL, much as EAL benefitted from the TWA arrangement during
the early operational period. Air transport is not an easy business in which to operate, as
evidenced by the large number of airline closures across Africa in the last 60 years. A welldeveloped
technical advisory service would meet the needs of these countries, while providing
an expanded revenue stream for EAL.
The emerging need for airport management services is another interesting development in
Africa. Proper management of an airport goes beyond servicing passengers and aircraft. There
83
Airline Liberalisation, International Air Transport Association, 2007.
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