By LUKE ANAMI

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Unless leaders in the region review policies and fees, air travel in East Africa will remain expensive, cumbersome, uncompetitive and punitive to both operators and passengers, stagnating the aviation sector.

These were the sentiments of the private sector in East Africa led by the umbrella organisation, East African Business Council (EABC), and presented at the EABC Private Sector Pre-Heads of State Summit Engagement held in conjunction with the German development agency, GIZ, in Nairobi this past week.

EABC called on the Heads of State Summit to intervene and make air travel in the region affordable by addressing the emerging non-tariff barriers.

“East African air transport service is over regulated and is still fragmented, restrictive and expensive due to the existence of different Bilateral Air Service Agreements,” said Nicholas Nesbitt, chairman of the EABC. “Regulation of air services should be about safety and not what airline is travelling where and why,” he pointed out.

Speakers pointed out that despite countries having national carriers, tickets from one capital to another in the region are punitively high, giving room to foreign airlines to undercut them, making the business of aviation expensive for regional airlines.

Dennis Karera, the vice chair of EABC blamed it on government taxes.

“Over 40 percent of air ticket costs in the region comprise of regulatory charges, parking fees and other taxes. And this is what we want the Summit to address,” he said.

He singled out Article 92 of the Treaty (Civil Aviation and Civil Air Transport), and called for its implementation. It states that EAC Partner States are required to adopt common policies to develop civil air transport in the Community in collaboration with other relevant international organisations.

Raft of barriers

He appealed to the EAC partner states to open the skies by reducing and aligning the high landing and parking fees in the region and governments to offer national treatment to each other’s carriers.

To do this, the EABC recommended that the EAC heads of state expedite finalisation of the EAC Regulations for Liberalisation of Air Services which will guide the EAC partner states in granting rights to each other for the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Freedoms.

“A ticket for a flight from Burundi to Arusha is $1,000 on an East African airline, yet to fly from Burundi to Dubai is $500. What are the issues?” asked John Kalisa, the chief executive of the EABC.

He said EAC countries are not optimising the Customs Union and the Common Market. “Unharmonised domestic tax regime affects the free movement of goods, services, labour and capital the freedoms of which are provided in the Treaty protocols,” said Mr Nesbitt.

Recurring NTBs arising from protectionist measures have increased despite a resolution of 230 NTBs as at the end of February 2022. The challenge posed by emerging NTBs has slowed intra-trade which is “at 15 percent but we are sliding backwards because of NTBs,” added Mr Nesbitt.

“EAC partner states adopt technology to transform our EAC region to be borderless for goods and services,” Mr Nesbitt said.

The private sector petitioned the Summit to do away with constraints that inhibit tourism.

Mr Kalisa petitioned the Summit “to allow the use of national IDs for EAC citizens travelling across partner states to promote domestic tourism,’’ and called on Burundi, Tanzania, and South Sudan to join the Single Tourist Visa by June 2022.

“These constraints include unfavourable policy and regulatory framework; uncertain business environment, over-reliance on traditional source markets, ill-equipped and in some cases poorly trained workers and untapped cultural resources,” said Mr Kalisa. He petitioned the Summit ‘’to allow the use of National IDs for EAC citizens travelling across partner states to promote domestic tourism,’’ and called on Burundi, Tanzania, and South Sudan to join the Single Tourist Visa by June 2022.

“Why travel from Kigali to Entebbe, pay more than $300, spend more than 12 hours to arrive and still call yourself an East African?” said Mr Kalisa.

Beyond aviation, the private sector also petitioned the Summit to harmonise domestic taxes.