Air liberalisation a threat to domestic travel
Freer skies proposed
FlyNamibia's Managing Director Andre Compion has sounded a warning bell over the Air Transport Liberalisation plan being proposed and mooted for the growth of airlines on the continent, saying it could hurt domestic air travel.
Many African countries have been signing Open Skies Agreements, allowing airlines from participating nations to operate freely across borders. This fosters healthy competition, increases route options, and can lead to more affordable airfares.
While the grandiose idea has been received favourably on a continental-wide scale, Compion said it should not be at the detriment of local economies.
“The notion that liberalisation will greatly contribute to air travel and make it a lot easier for passengers to travel, is simply not there. There is a huge threat to airlines like ourselves in this liberalisation drive, because the drive is to allow fifth freedom traffic to be carried, which was never allowed,” he said.
Fifth freedom flights allow foreign carriers to operate routes between two countries where neither is their home base.
“The danger thereof is that some of the major carriers will cherry-pick the trunk routes, in our case, Windhoek – Johannesburg, and Windhoek – Cape Town, which will make our routes unviable to the extent that we will not be able to sustain our domestic operations,” Compion said.
FlyNamibia currently operates domestic and regional air services in and around Namibia, using the Hosea Kutako International Airport 40 km outside Windhoek as its hub, and operating a fleet of Embraer 145 regional jets.
Another limitation of the model is that major carriers would not serve, nor support the domestic air travel market, Compion said.
“The big carriers are not interested in domestic routes at all. Whether the domestic routes survive is not in their interest. There will be more competition on the trunk routes, but there will not be service on the domestic routes which will be to the detriment of the tourism industry,” he said.
Many African countries have been signing Open Skies Agreements, allowing airlines from participating nations to operate freely across borders. This fosters healthy competition, increases route options, and can lead to more affordable airfares.
While the grandiose idea has been received favourably on a continental-wide scale, Compion said it should not be at the detriment of local economies.
“The notion that liberalisation will greatly contribute to air travel and make it a lot easier for passengers to travel, is simply not there. There is a huge threat to airlines like ourselves in this liberalisation drive, because the drive is to allow fifth freedom traffic to be carried, which was never allowed,” he said.
Fifth freedom flights allow foreign carriers to operate routes between two countries where neither is their home base.
“The danger thereof is that some of the major carriers will cherry-pick the trunk routes, in our case, Windhoek – Johannesburg, and Windhoek – Cape Town, which will make our routes unviable to the extent that we will not be able to sustain our domestic operations,” Compion said.
FlyNamibia currently operates domestic and regional air services in and around Namibia, using the Hosea Kutako International Airport 40 km outside Windhoek as its hub, and operating a fleet of Embraer 145 regional jets.
Another limitation of the model is that major carriers would not serve, nor support the domestic air travel market, Compion said.
“The big carriers are not interested in domestic routes at all. Whether the domestic routes survive is not in their interest. There will be more competition on the trunk routes, but there will not be service on the domestic routes which will be to the detriment of the tourism industry,” he said.
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