ROUTES AFRICA: Air Services Agreement Brings Market Opportunities

A recently signed bilateral air services agreement between Cameroon and South Africa is a major marker in the ongoing deregulation of flight operations in the continent, according to analysts in the region. The agreement allows South African operators to fly to destinations in Cameroon and then on to other countries in Africa.

According to South African Transport Minister, Sibusiso Ndebele, there are examples of passengers having to fly to Europe to connect from one African destination to another, due to the limited internal links within the continent. "This makes no business or economic sense, and the peoples and economies of Africa suffer as a consequence, and opportunities for improved aviation, including profitability and development of tourism, cannot be effectively responded to," he said.

South African Airways (SAA) currently offers four flights per week between Johannesburg and Douala, via Libreville in Gabon. It will seek to increase capacity on the route as well as potentially opening new connections in North and West Africa. Cameroon’s national carrier Camair-Co currently only offers flights within West Africa and a link to Paris, France, but plans to also introduce flights to South Africa when it has available capacity.

An estimated 18,000 O&D passengers travelled between South Africa and Cameroon last year. Around 70 per cent of the traffic uses SAA’s service, with around a quarter travelling with Kenya Airways via Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

To keep up to date with the latest news from this year’s Routes Africa follow the #Routes Africa hashtag on Twitter.