Zimbabwe basks in the glory of open skies

Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter

ZIMBABWE has registered significant strides in the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) through opening up its skies to regional and global airlines bringing in competition, regional cooperation and price fairness.

Modelled in the same fashion as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), SAATM, is an agreement that was signed by African Heads of States in 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as one of the flagship projects of the Agenda 2063 that seeks to liberalise the aviation sector, increase routes, reduce costs of travel to the African citizenry, increase trade and tourism as well as increase direct employment and investments with the ultimate goal growing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the African States and the continent.

In an interview with Sunday News, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) Director General Dr Engineer Elijah Chingosho said President Mnangagwa has made it clear that the country was open for business, and as CAAZ they have followed suit in conformity with the instructive mantra.

“We are also saying the skies are open for business in conformity with what the President has been preaching. In other words, Zimbabwe is fully liberalised in terms of its air space. Those operators who want to fly into the country are allowed to do so without restrictions including providing them with fifth freedom traffic rights which were one of the key issues within the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD).

“By the fifth freedom traffic rights we are saying, if for instance Kenya Airways wants to fly to Zambia via Zimbabwe. Unless they are granted the fifth freedom right, they cannot pick up passengers in Harare because that is our revenue but once allowed the route is now viable,” said Dr Chingosho.

He said as a result of the opening up of the skies, more airlines were finding Zimbabwe as a more attractive destination with profitable operations through the operationalisation of SAATM. Dr Chingosho said SAATM working in tandem with the AfCFTA which was also being promoted by the Government to promote tourism and trade, adding that SAATM and AfCFTA were reinforcing each other.

“I can attest to several airlines that have found Zimbabwe to be a viable destination and once they file their applications they are attended to efficiently. One example is Fastjet which has come in particularly with the domestic routes. Even internationally, we have new players coming through such as SAFAIR which is a low cost carrier, meaning that fares from Zimbabwe to Johannesburg would now be more competitive and cheaper because of the presence of SAFAIR.

“We also have other airlines like Royal Eswatini Airlines, Air Link increasing the number of flights into the country. You will notice that SAATM mainly pushes for African airlines, but as a country we are opening up to all global airlines like Qatar Airways, Eurowings and we expect more airlines to come into the market,” said Dr Chingosho.

Fastjet Zimbabwe chief pilot Captain Joe Mparuri said the opening up of the skies by Zimbabwe means they have to up their game as an airline.

“The general implementation of SAATM means we have to be best at our game all the time. Not only us as Fastjet, but any other airline. We need to ensure we are delivering the best service because competition will come and if you not the best you will fall by the way side,” said Cpt Mparuri.

According to aviation expert and Air Zimbabwe CEO Mr Edmund Makona, SAATM is derived from the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD).

“Yamoussoukro is a town in Cote D’Ivoire where 44 African Heads of State signed the declaration in 1988. In 1999 it mutated to be the Yamoussoukro Declaration which was expected to be implemented by 2002 with the essential objective of liberalising the African skies and unite its economies and its people,” he said He said in 2014 a study was carried out to determine the benefits of liberalising the African skies using a sample of 12 African countries.

“In the north they took Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. In the west they took Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal and in the east they took Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya. In the south they took South Africa, Angola and Namibia. They realised that if these 12 countries were to liberalise their skies, it would create a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD1.3 billion amongst the 12 countries. It would also entail the creation of 150 100 jobs directly as well as creating five million more passengers. However, they said if the liberalisation comes and your airlines are not strong, it can lead to extinction,” said Mr Makona explaining the SAATM. @nyeve14