MANY AFRICAN airlines and their state owners - like their counterparts in the rest of the world - are being pressured towards privatisation. Those African airlines are not, however, like their European counterparts; nor is the environment in which they fly like Europe. The most pressing questions they face are not whether they should be privatised, but whether there is a market which justifies their existence.
The African aviation industry has not been alone in suffering from the heavy hand of government interference. In almost every country around the world, with the possible exception of the USA, airlines have been forced not only to carry passengers, but also the flags and aspirations of their nations.
While state interference may not be unique to Africa, it has been uniquely destructive.
In part it dates back to the end of colonialisation. The rush by the newly independent states, to paint their flags on the side of aircraft created a proliferation of "international" airlines and airports, many of which have proved woefully uneconomic.
What could perhaps have survived as small regional operations, possibly feeders to the handful of airlines able to mount full intercontinental services, have instead been burdened with the responsibilities of flag carriers.
On a rough count, there are almost 30 international carriers and 63 international gateway airports across the continent. Given that Africa accounts for no more than a couple of percent of world traffic, the figures are ludicrous.
Given that the continent is desperately short of resources and daily faced with the insoluble problems of poverty, war and natural disaster, the fragmentation is inexcusable.
True, some headway is being made to engender a new sense of co-operation within the region. Governments have signed up for a common African aviation policy which could eventually go some way to freeing up traffic rights between countries and regions.
The industry can also point to the long-standing Air Afrique consortium, which now numbers a dozen west African states, as a potential model for future ventures. The re-emergence of South Africa Airlines onto the African stage has already acted as a catalyst, leading to the formation of the long-haul Alliance joint venture with Uganda and Tanzania.
Such co-operation is laudable enough, but it needs to go much further and faster. The simply fact is that there are still too many airlines and airports with ambitions which they cannot hope to fulfil. Yet there seems little hope of the number reducing until governments stop protecting their airlines and their traffic markets.
The ultimate goal must be a single African air market, free of national boundaries. That may be an ambitious target, just as is was in Europe, but it is one worth working towards.
Of course there could be casualties, but that is the point. The industry would be allowed to find its own level. When Zambia allowed its national airline to go bust earlier this year, other start-ups rushed in to fill the vacuum and may well succeed where the flag carrier failed.
The internal network is one of the weakest in the world, with only a quarter of possible city-pairs being served. Allowing the rise of small entrepreneurial carriers to take over from the traditional flag carriers could hardly make the situation worse.
Tourism is another matter. Anything that affected this vital source of income would indeed be against the national interest, but there is little evidence to suggest that abandoning an ailing national flag carrier would have this effect. The brute fact is that the vast bulk of tourists choose to fly on their own European airlines and are likely to continue doing so until the alternatives improve.
None of this will be achieved without government approval, but with political change now sweeping the continent, from South Africa upwards, the time may be right. The African aviation industry now has its best chance in decades of returning from the wilderness - and it must make it count.
Source: Flight International
