I. INTRODUCTION

1. In order to keep policy makers regularly informed about the status of the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration on a new African Air Transport Policy, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) uses various fora such as the subregional and sectoral working group meetings and the Conference of African Ministers of Transport and Communications to report on activities conducted and progress achieved.

2. This report covers the period from March 1995 to June 1997. Reports covering periods prior to this have already been submitted.

II. ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED

3. Since the meeting of African Ministers responsible for Civil Aviation was held at Mauritius in September 1994 and the tenth Conference of African Ministers of Transport and Communications was held at Addis Ababa in March 1995, the organizations implementing the Declaration and the designated coordinating ministers have conducted several activities including those described below which could be complemented by other organizations:

A. ECA

4. ECA has finalized the reports of the consultants it recruited to conduct studies on:

(a) The legal framework for integrating the Yamoussoukro Declaration in national policies;

(b) Air transport policy and integration in Africa; and

(c) The model agreement between two or more countries for the establishment of a multinational airline.

5. All three documents were sent to member countries for comment and eventual use by those reviewing their air transport policy legislation.

6. Furthermore, ECA sent out questionnaires to all member States with a view to gathering information about the implementation of the Mauritius decisions, more particularly those relating to traffic rights and the operation of cargo flights in the various subregions. Of the 53 countries to which questionnaires were sent, ECA received 27 responses. The countries which have to respond or whose responses have yet to be received are: Botswana, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Comoros, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Mozambique, the Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Zambia.

7. The information gathered enabled ECA to prepare a preliminary report which was sent to the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) to assist African airlines in addressing some of the issues raised. The report was sent to the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) to assist civil aviation authorities to find appropriate solutions to issues raised by certain countries.

8. Generally speaking, the information available shows that some countries are implementing the measures adopted in Mauritius but that there are still problems regarding the granting of traffic rights and the operation of cargo flights. ECA's analysis, which will be completed later when the general evaluation is being made, is annexed to this report.

9. At the request of officials selected to assist the coordinating minister for the West African subregion (the Ivorian Minister), ECA provided technical backstopping to the meetings of civil aviation experts held in Accra, Ghana; the meeting of the subregional follow- up committee (whose establishment was recommended in Mauritius) held at Lomé, Togo; and the subregional meeting of ministers responsible for civil aviation held at Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire in December 1996. These various meetings considered the problems hindering the effective implementation of the Declaration in West Africa and, given the commitment of the countries of the subregion to the Declaration objectives, enabled appropriate measures to be taken to address the problems identified in the subregion. ECA's technical assistance consisted of preparing working documents and providing advisory services during the meetings.

10. With regard to African subregional organizations, ECA participated in some meetings of the Southern African Transport Coordination Conference (SATCC), AFRAA and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which dealt with issues related to the Yamoussoukro Declaration.

11. ECA also fielded sensitization missions to impress upon certain countries the importance of the Declaration objectives.

B. OAU/AFCAC

12. As a specialized agency of OAU, AFCAC has set up a follow-up committee on the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration. This Committee has been very actively sensitizing member States and addressing the problems encountered. It has met several times to assess the progress made in the implementation of the Declaration and reported thereon to the air transport committee of AFCAC.

13. AFCAC has assisted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to design a multilateral agreement on air transport. It participated in the subregional follow-up committee meeting held at Lomé, Togo which Côte d'Ivoire organized as coordinator.

14. At the international conference on air transport held in 1995, AFCAC defended the African Common Position on the future regulation of air transport which had been adopted in Mauritius. It also played a key role in coordinating and negotiating with ICAO and other regions of the world in order to make sure that African views were taken into account in arriving at world decisions on air transport.

C. AFRAA

15. As a regional organization having the objective, among others, of harmoniously developing African air services, AFRAA has gathered information on the implementation of the Declaration and informed members of its executive committee about the problems encountered and the progress made. It helped to organize those subregional meetings to which it had been invited by preparing and submitting documents such as the model text relating to the integration of the Declaration in national air transport policies. This document was distributed at meetings of SATCC and AFCAC committees.

16. Finally, AFRAA and ECA regularly consulted on solutions to address problems identified upon analysis of the questionnaires sent to member States and on action to be taken to achieve the objectives at which the Declaration was aimed.

Subregional economic organizations

17. ECOWAS, UDEAC and SATCC have taken initiatives to coordinate action and programme activities. Indeed, during their statutory meetings, these organizations discussed the problems relating to the implementation of the Declaration and took appropriate action. The ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, for instance, during its meeting held in Abuja from 22 to 25 July 1996, decided to create a single West African airspace. UDEAC plans to organize by late 1997, a meeting of Central African experts and ministers in charge of civil aviation. SATCC has regularly brought together directors of civil aviation authorities and airline managing directors to meetings where the implementation of the Declaration was discussed.

Coordinating ministers

18. The countries designated to coordinate the implementation of the Declaration at the subregional level are the following:

(c) Central Africa - Gabon

(e) North Africa - Tunisia

19. During the period under review, only the coordinating minister for the West African subregion undertook coordination activities by organizing a subregional meeting at the ministerial level. Furthermore, the subregional follow-up committee organized a meeting of civil aviation experts and a follow-up committee meeting. These meetings made it possible to take two key decisions described below on traffic rights and the powers of the follow-up committee.

Decision on traffic rights

(i) Third and fourth freedoms of the air

20. It was decided that traffic rights for the third and fourth freedoms of the air should be granted freely under the following conditions:

(a) Ownership and control of designated airlines

(b) Number of airlines

Traffic rights should be granted to a maximum of two airlines in each State for passenger and freight service.

(c) Tariffs

Tariffs should be determined on the basis of a flat rate policy which takes into account the operating cost of the airlines and submitted to the competent authorities of the State concerned for approval.

(d) Aircraft type and capacity

There shall be no restriction as to the type or capacity of the aircraft. Should there be wide disparities between aircraft types and capacity, the designated airlines will have to conclude commercial arrangements.

(e) Flight safety

ICAO standards and the standard applicable recommended practices (SARPs) should be applied.

(f) Flight frequencies

Each airline should have five flights per week. Flight days should be open but the airline should cooperate and harmonize their schedules. In cases where a State has no airline, it should negotiate commercial arrangements. If a country has only one airline, it should also conclude commercial arrangements.

(d) Destination points

There shall be two destination points in each State.

(h) Date of entry into force

These provisions should enter into force by 1 May 1997, at the latest.

In addition to the aforementioned procedures specifying how third and fourth traffic rights shall be granted, member States shall grant the fifth freedom on the following bases:

(a) Unconditionally in cases where no airlines are operating under the third and fourth freedoms;

(b) In cases where there are airlines operating the third and fourth freedoms, up to 20 per cent of the traffic (based on the total volume of traffic of the preceding year) or of the number of seats available on the route, shall be reserved for operation under the fifth freedom, provided that 80 per cent of the total traffic or number of seats available on the route are reserved for airlines operating the third and fourth freedoms; and

(c) In cases where there are airlines operating the third, fourth and fifth freedoms, fifth freedom rights should be granted to non-African operators on a reciprocal basis after due consultation with concerned operators in the subregion for the benefit of the ECOWAS subregion. This provision for the application of the fifth freedom in those States shall enter into force on 1 November 1997 at the latest.

Subregional follow-up committee

22. With a view to reactivating the implementation of the decisions taken by the various ministerial meetings on the Declaration, a subregional follow-up committee has been set up at the expert and ministerial levels. Any disputes arising among States in the implementation of the Declaration shall be referred to this committee. The decisions taken by the committee shall be mandatory and sanctions instituted against airlines which do not comply with those decisions. Such sanctions may include:

(a) Capacity reduction;

(b) Forfeiture of third, fourth and fifth traffic rights; and

(c) Total forfeiture of traffic rights on specified air routes.

23. The conclusions of this West African meeting were sent to all coordinating ministers as a guide for their subregional activities.

24. To follow up this meeting, States members of the Yaounde Treaty have revised that Treaty and incorporated the spirit of the Declaration. Furthermore, the representatives of the following countries and/or airlines (the Gambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone) have met to consider the problems arising from the implementation of the Declaration. At the conclusion of their work, they adopted the Banjul Accord on speeding up the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration.

25. From the foregoing, it may be concluded that the coordinating ministers of the other subregions should redouble their efforts to activate the implementation of the Declaration.

III. PROGRESS ACHIEVED IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECLARATION

26. Generally speaking, from the time the measures were adopted in Mauritius to speed up the implementation of the Declaration, it can be noted that:

(a) Several countries in West and East Africa are making efforts to liberalize traffic rights gradually. Those countries have taken measures to incorporate the Declaration into their national air transport policies;

(b) Under the auspices of AFRAA, technical cooperation has made much headway particularly with regard to plant pooling, joint fuel purchasing, retreading and purchasing of aircraft tyres;

(c) African positions relative to air transport regulations have been properly coordinated and defined at international fora;

(d) African countries are becoming increasingly aware of the stakes and implications of new air transport policies;

(e) Governments have scaled down their involvement in the management of airlines and airport authorities. Indeed, several initiatives have been taken to promote private sector participation in air transport activities. As of 1996, at least 12 airlines have been proposed for privatization and about 10 civil aviation authorities are to become autonomous;

(f) New air transport regulations are promoting the establishment of private airlines;

(g) Commercial agreements have been concluded among African airlines;

(h) The measures adopted in Mauritius, with specific reference to the granting of the fifth freedom, have been implemented by many African countries;

(i) New routes are being flown through the flexibility that has been introduced in the granting of traffic rights (especially those of the fifth freedom) as agreed in Mauritius. Consequently, the intra-African network has improved somewhat; and

(j) An alliance has been established among Air Mauritius, Air Madagascar and Air Seychelles.

General remarks

27. From the foregoing, what one sees taking place is a slight improvement in the situation as the Declaration is gradually implemented. There has been no merger or integration of commercial and technical activities even though these would have been based on the advantages that the airlines stand to gain. This may be due to problems that can and should be overcome. Alliances have been established with airlines outside of Africa. Even though such alliances may be necessary, they should not prevent intra-African cooperation. Generally, the coordinating ministers have not been very active either because of the changes taking place or a lack of commitment or a lack of information.

IV. PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED

28. If the Declaration has not been fully implemented nine years after it was adopted, this may point to problems that can be addressed. Among those problems, mention can be made of the following:

29. More than for any other reason, the declarations of intent that African airlines have made regarding cooperation and integration have not been effectively carried out because of their lack of initiative, trust and the financial difficulties most of them are going through. While the studies which have been undertaken could have led to positive results, the cultural and political commitments have not been forthcoming. For lack of convincing studies, the airlines have not been able to take several initiatives to enter into alliances that would have helped them to achieve the objectives of the Declaration. Be it noted, however, that Air Mauritius, Air Madagascar and Air Seychelles have decided to set up a regional airline.

(ii) Restructuring programmes

30. Several African airlines have embarked upon restructuring programmes in order to improve their financial situation and to cope with competition. In this process which takes time, the airline directors have focused on the day-to-day problems and the mobilization of funds and have not had the time to focus on entering into alliances.

31. Since the early 1990s, African States have been experiencing political, economic and social turmoil. Their governments have not had the time they need to concentrate on developing the air transport sector, more specifically, airline cooperation and integration.

(iv) Lack of commitment and fears

32. Airline directors are still distrustful of each other and hesitate to commit themselves to cooperation and integration arrangements. Furthermore, African airlines continue to operate individually their air services to Europe and Asia while there remains one area of great potential for cooperation and integration that has yet to be exploited. Indeed, better coordination and cooperation along those routes will lead to the creation of African hubs which will make it possible to operate daily flights to Europe and Asia and also provide better air services to African capitals. Lacking such commitment, therefore, the airlines have not been able to take the initiative in forging alliances so as to integrate their air transport operational. What is more, the airlines fear that the implementation of the Declaration might place them at a disadvantage in commercial terms.

(v) Misinterpretation of the Declaration

33. Some countries and airlines continue to misinterpret the Declaration or to interpret it to their advantage. Indeed, for some of them, the objective of the Declaration is to create regional groupings while for others, the idea is more to create an enabling environment through wider liberalization.

(vi) Conclusions

34. In 1998, ECA will undertake a comprehensive review of the air transport situation in Africa. During that exercise, the impact of the Yamoussoukro Declaration will be assessed. Pending the report thereon which will be submitted to a regional meeting of ministers responsible for civil aviation, action should be taken to pursue those activities already initiated and to start new ones. All things considered, however, the current outlook is generally positive because the momentum generated by the Declaration has brought about a change of attitudes and promoted better coordination of African positions, not to mention the creation of an enabling environment for private sector participation in air transport activities.

35. In order to improve the current situation, the following activities are proposed:

(a) ECA, OAU, AFCAC and AFRAA should field joint missions to those countries that are dragging their feet and/or misinterpreting the Declaration;

(b) Under the auspices of the coordinating ministers, national seminars should be organized in such countries as are reluctant to realign their national policies to reflect the principles of the Yamoussoukro Declaration;

(c) At the request of those countries, studies should be undertaken with a view to addressing their expressed fears. Given the fact that the high turnover of ministers has not made it possible to follow through the subregional initiatives taken, an appeal should be launched to the coordinating ministers, exhorting them to follow through on the activities initiated in the implementation of the Mauritius decisions and ECA requested to improve the flow of information on best practices and success stories.

VI. PROPOSED MEASURES

36. This progress report, together with the analysis of the questionnaires, will be enriched within the context of the comprehensive study that ECA plans to undertake in 1998. Nevertheless, the meeting is invited to:

(a) Consider the follow-up actions described in paragraphs 34 and 35 under the concluding chapter with a view to adding on whatever decisions the meeting might deem necessary;

(b) Appeal to those countries that have not done so, to fill out the questionnaires and send them back to ECA, if possible before 28 February 1998;

(c) Request the various partners to send to ECA any additional information needed to complete the report; and

(d) Consider the possibility of organizing a regional meeting to review and appraise the implementation of the Declaration and to take any needed decisions. In this regard, a restricted committee could be established to prepare the working document to be submitted to the regional conference.

Annex

INTRODUCTION

In January 1996, ECA prepared and sent to all African countries, questionnaires to assess the implementation of the measures adopted in Mauritius with a view to activating the implementation of the Yamoussukro Declaration. So far, the following countries and airlines have replied: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana Airways, Kenya Airways, Madagascar, Mali, Malawi, Air Mauritius, Namibia, Air Seychelles and Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan Airways, Royal Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Air Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe. ECA has not received the filled questionnaires from the following countries and/or airlines: Botswana, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gabon, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Mozambique, the Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Zambia. Therefore, the following analysis is based on the data gathered from the available replies received by ECA.

II. ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF

THE YAMOUSSOUKRO DECLARATION

ECA will undertake, next year, an in-depth study on the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration. This report is therefore, a preliminary assessment of the issues raised by the countries in responding to the questionnaires. The assessment has been done by subregion and by specific theme. Some of the problems may have already been solved. Also, some issues raised are not known to civil aviation authorities since the airlines have negotiated only among themselves without associating the government officials.

A. SOUTHERN AFRICA

The department of transport of South Africa reported that negotiations took place with Zambia, and they were experiencing difficulties in obtaining an increase of one frequency on the Johannesburg-Ndola route for Inter Air. This situation is not in line with the consensus reached in Mauritius.

A.2 Experience with Mozambique

A.3 Experience with Zimbabwe

Negotiations between Zimbabwe and South Africa were held from 13 to 15 September 1995. As of result, South Africa allows the free movement of aircraft carrying not more than eight (8) passengers and/or 1,000 kg of cargo. But, due to the lack of reciprocity from Zimbabwe, the Government of South Africa was forced to put provisions in the Bilateral Air Transport Agreement to regulate the provision of express freight services with aircraft not larger than 5,700 kg carrying up to 1,000 kg of cargo

A.4 Experience with Kenya

Air Seychelles requested fifth freedom rights on the Nairobi/Madrid, route but this was not accepted by Kenya. Although the issue of traffic rights between Africa and other regions was not discussed in Mauritius, this request could have been accepted.

Air Zimbabwe requested fifth freedom rights on Nairobi/Dubai and the Maputo/Durban routes but none was accepted. These issues were not discussed in Mauritius, but could be considered by Kenya.

The countries which replied to the questionnaires did not raise any issue on the difficulties of granting third and fourth freedoms. It is therefore assumed that the Southern countries have fully accepted the decisions taken in Mauritius.

A.6 Cargo operation in Southern Africa

From the above, it can be concluded that cargo operations face difficulties in the Southern subregion, despite the decisions taken by the ministers of transport and communications. It is the airlines which are influencing to some extent the regulatory issue of the air services.

B. NORTH AFRICA

Within the subregion, traffic rights are granted with flexibility and most of the countries of the subregion have indicated that they have adopted a liberal policy of granting traffic rights. The subregion is not very well linked to other African subregions because of the difficulties in obtaining the necessary traffic rights.

B.1 Experiences with West Africa

Fifth freedom rights were requested on the routes below but were not fully granted, because at least one of the States refused:

Addis - Asmara Bamako - Cotonou

Niamey - Bamako Bamako - Ouagadougou

Cotonou - Abidjan Abidjan - Dakar

Niamey - Ouagadougou Bamako - Dakar

Dakar - Abidjan Dakar - Ouagadougou

B.2. Cargo operations between North Africa and West Africa

Requests for cargo operations by North African airlines on the following routes were refused despite the decisions reached in Mauritius:

Dakar - Abidjan

Dakar - Cotonou

Abidjan - Cotonou - Ouagadougou

Abidjan - Ouagadougou - Niamey - Bamako

C. EAST AFRICA SUBREGION

In the subregion, there are some countries which have difficulties to implement the decisions reached in Mauritius especially on the issue of the fifth traffic right.

The request of Kenya Airways to operate on fifth freedom rights between Dar-es-Salaam and Luanda, and Dar-es-Salaam/Mauritius was not accepted.

Entebbe - Bujumbura

Entebbe - Kigali

Johannesburg - Harare

Dar-es-Salaam - Harare

D. WEST AFRICA SUBREGION

Issues arising from the implementation of the Declaration were discussed by the civil aviation experts, the follow-up committee on the Declaration and the ministers responsible for civil aviation. In this regard, decisions have been taken to ensure the effective granting of third and fourth freedoms and of the fifth freedom by 1 May 1997 and 1 November 1997 respectively. To ensure the proper implementation of the above decisions, a subregional follow-up committee vested with the power to take sanctions has been established.

In addition to the above, the directors of civil aviation and the chief executives of airlines from the Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, and Cape Verde, held a consultative meeting in Banjul to discuss the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration. This meeting concluded with the adoption of the Banjul Accord for an accelerated implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration and a Memorandum of Understanding was duly signed by the authorities of the participating States.

E. CENTRAL AFRICA SUBREGION

Since only two countries out of ten in this subregion replied to the questionnaire, ECA has not been able to make an analysis.

III. FINDINGS

Despite the decisions taken in Mauritius by the ministers responsible for civil aviation to activate the implementation of the Declaration, some African countries are still continuing to protect their airlines and to refuse traffic rights even on routes where they have no operations.

The analysis revealed also that much has been done to gradually liberalize the granting of traffic rights and to incorporate the Yamoussoukro Declaration in national air transport policies, but more remains to be done to reach the set objective.

Also, the questionnaires revealed that while countries refused to accept the decisions adopted in Mauritius, they use the concept of the Declaration to request the granting of traffic rights and cargo operation.

In the subregions, the decisions of the ministers are not fully implemented, but some progress has been achieved.

It is found that some countries refused to implement the decisions of the ministers in their subregion and yet they used the concept of the Declaration to request fifth freedom rights or cargo operations.

To facilitate the achievement of the goal of the Yamoussoukro Declaration and the decisions reached in Mauritius, implementation would have to begin at subregional or economic group level and move forward to the regional level.