Aviation experts push for lower taxes to make African air travel affordable

Director-General of Civil Aviation Authorities in Africa and policymakers in the continent are tinkering with the idea of cutting high aviation taxes and charges as they lamented that high taxes and charges are killing the African travel industry.

The Gambian Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, Ebrima Sillah disclosed when Overland Airways launched flight services to Banjul, The Gambia with a brand-new Embraer E-175 aircraft.

He disclosed that at the end of the briefing, they came to realise that, yes, it is important to follow the money, but it is also important that they follow the volume and the numbers.

“Whenever people come to the country, what you lose as airport taxes, you gain from what they spend in your country and the time that they also spend here. So, the economy of scale is there, and no one is a loser in that,” he said.

He stated that the idea was to emulate Europe and other developed countries where people can fly for just $30 but regretted that there is nowhere within West Africa that costs less than $100 for most journeys that are less than two hours.

For a quick comparison, flying from Berlin to Istanbul will probably set you back around $150 (£120) for a direct flight taking less than three hours.

But flying a similar distance, say between Kinshasa and Lagos, you will be paying anything between $700 and $950.

As a first step, the Minister said Senegal and Gambia as a first step have agreed and domesticated points between Banjul and Dakar, stressing that what this means is all charges associated with international travel will now be waived from the cost ticket.

“Waving those taxes in those countries will see a significant drop in the cost of tickets. We hope this will trigger the interest in utilizing air transport to build travel between our two destinations instead of going by land.”

“If we try to hold on to the high taxes, we will not grow. But if we reduce the cost of travel, the economics of scales is bound to kick in and the number will shoot up. Whatever we lose in the short term by giving a discount, we are sure of gaining it in the long term.”

“Well, we want to make Banjul a hub. And you cannot do that when you have these narrow nationalistic tendencies. You know, I mean, this is the sky up there. I mean, whether you know it or not, people are making use of it. In Europe, if you go there, there is no restriction. You can fly from London to Paris maybe only £20, right? I cannot imagine that. You use a flight going to Lagos from Africa and you have to pay $4,000 to $5,000 for business class or $2,000 for ordinary economic class. That is too much. That is why there is less economic cooperation between us. Because there are so many barriers to land transport. We have a lot of restrictions and charges”

This is at variance with Nigeria where air transport is extremely expensive as airport taxes and charges are considered to be the highest in the world and one that has prevented many people from taking to air travel.

The Vice President of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for Africa and the Middle East East, Kamil Al Alwadhi branded the Lagos and Abuja airports as the most expensive airports to operate in terms of levy and tax charges in the world.

Sillah noted that The Gambian Minister of Finance came to accept that they had to pursue the domestication process very seriously and the reason it had entered into discussion with Senegal was to achieve reduction and harmonization in taxes and levies.

The Director-General of Gambia Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Nfansu Bojang corroborated with the Transport Minister that they are aware that one of the key obstacles to the development of the continent’s air transport increasing numbers and connectivity is the high cost of air travel.

He, therefore, reiterated that most of the travels within our region are government officers’ travels, adding that ordinary citizens find it very difficult because the prices are exorbitantly unaffordable; hence the concept of trying to domesticate destinations in the sub-region and countries.

The Chief Executive Officer of Overland Airways, Capt Edward Boyo said air travel is currently confined to the well-to-do.

Overland Airways according to Boyo presents itself under the AU AFCAC Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) programme designed to open the skies of Africa and raise the integration of African member states.

“We are trying to make air transport affordable and available for everybody so that the African continent can progress in economy, trade and integration of people. We are committed to this service to develop the Nigerian and the Gambian economy.”