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Africa|Aviation|Business|Financial|Testing|transport
Africa|Aviation|Business|Financial|Testing|transport
africa|aviation|business|financial|testing|transport

Iata head calls on African governments to save their airlines as crisis stays deep

20th November 2020

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Remotely addressing the recent fifty-second annual general meeting of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), International Air Transport Association (Iata) director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac highlighted the damage that the continent’s airlines have suffered as a result of travel restrictions imposed to counter the Covid-19 pandemic. He also stressed the danger this posed to African economies and called for the aid announced for the continent’s airlines to be disbursed.

“We all support efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic,” he emphasised. “It is our duty and we will prevail. But policymakers must know that this has come at a great cost to jobs, individual freedoms and entire economies.”

In Africa, aviation traffic has fallen by 89%, with revenue losses of at least $6-billion, but probably more. In the wider economy, five-million African jobs were endangered and the continent’s aviation-supported gross domestic product could drop by 58%, or, in monetary terms, by $37-billion.

“We are in the middle of the biggest crisis our industry has ever faced,” he pointed out. “As leaders of Africa’s aviation industry, you know that first-hand. Airline revenues have collapsed. “ Fleets are grounded. And you are taking extreme measures just to survive.” Four African airlines had already gone under, and two more were in administration. The sector needed the continent’s governments to act, and act fast, to prevent a “calamity”.

There were two top priorities for the sector in Africa. One was the release of promised financial aid. “Over $31-billion in financial support has been pledged by African governments, international finance bodies and other institutions, including the African Development Bank, the African Union and the International Monetary Fund,” he noted. “Unfortunately, pledges do not pay the bills. And little of this funding has materialised. And let me emphasise that, while we are calling for relief for aviation, this is an investment in the future of the continent. It will need financially viable airlines to support the economic recovery from Covid-19.”

The other priority was to reopen borders in a safe manner, by using testing and not by imposing quarantines on travellers. People, he observed, still wanted to travel. But travel had been made impossible by border closures and other restrictions. No-one wanted to travel if it meant having to undergo 14-day quarantines. Of the 44 African countries that had reopened their borders to international and regional travellers, 20 still required travellers to be quarantined for 14 days. Systematic testing, before departure, provided a safe alternative to quarantine and would bring to an end the severe economic and social damage being caused by the pandemic.

“Our industry will, no doubt, be changed by this crisis,” he said. “But flying will return. Airlines will be back in the skies. The resilience of our industry has been proven many times. We will rise again. We are the business of freedom. For Africa that is the freedom to develop and thrive. And that is not something people on this continent will forget or lose their desire for.”

De Juniac’s address to AFRAA came not long after Iata released its air passenger and air cargo statistics for September. Regarding passenger traffic, while demand during September had improved slightly over that for August, it remained deeply depressed. September air passenger demand was down 72.8% year-on-year, while demand in August had been down 75.2% year-on-year. Passenger capacity in September was 63% below that of September last year and the load factor was 60.1%, a year-on-year decline of 21.8 percentage points.

“We have hit a wall in the industry’s recovery,” he stated when the statistics were released. “A resurgence in Covid-19 outbreaks – particularly in Europe and the US – combined with governments’ reliance on the blunt instrument of quarantine in the absence of globally aligned testing regimes, has halted momentum toward reopening borders to travel.”

Things were, however, looking better for the air cargo sector. “Air cargo volumes are down on 2019, but they are a world apart from the extreme difficulties in the passenger business,” he highlighted. “For air cargo, 92% of the business is still there, whereas about 90% of the international passenger traffic has disappeared.” However, the different Iata regions had experienced wide variations in demand, with Africa and North America both doing much better than the other regions.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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