Contextually, the air transport of Africa is a growing sector with an increasing number of populations out of global regions. A prosperous Africa will demand opening up opportunities that did not exist before. However, the growth in the aviation sector does not provide the perspective of its health. It’s clear where Africa was, will be and now is. The growth of aviation industry is not yet translated into a strong and healthy air transport within the continent (Bofinger, 2017).

For instances, although Somalia was badly affected by the civil war and yet there is a very little progress in our airport which is only one in number. I have been working with Uganda Airlines in Mogadishu since late 2019 and based at Aden Adde International Airport. The fact is that the airport has faced and still facing challenges in terms of security, space and infrastructure which will be mainly discussed in this article. Moreover, I have personally experienced airlines conflicting check-in counters at the airport because of the little space available.

Additionally, I paid a visit to Uganda twice and although there is progress when compared to Aden Adde Int. airport in Mogadishu, but the same challenges exist which means it is a shared and common challenge by Africa itself which in turn resulted in opportunities for inbound tourism and inward investment to have been adversely affected by the uncertainty continuation of providing air services, thus the air transport in Africa remains unchanged

The Role of Air Transport

Successful air transport is challenging but once successful it will play a major role in the continent (Africa). There is a difficulty of free movement of goods, people and service in the continent, so looking Africa with an eye of opportunities, air transport maybe the driving force of regional market integration. Hence, fostering the African aviation industry will be creating direct and indirect job opportunities for the unemployed people across the industry at large. Tourism will be one of the roles air transport will contribute in the region.

Moreover, having a better and successful air transport will help the continent to connect with the rest of the world. Africa has a rich culture; thus, cultural exchange could be another major role could create by air transport. Hands are powerful when they are joined together therefore, developing a successful aviation industry may suggest the opportunity to mitigate the chronic aviation problems faced by the industry collaboratively

Challenges of Air Transport

The growth and expansion of Africa’s aviation industry is hindered by number of challenges, poor access to local capital sources, over reliance of government, easy target for tax, infrastructure constraints, poor safety and security record and lack of government regulation/actions. Let us try to explain shortly each of the above listed challenges:

• Over reliance of government: newly initiatives, startups in the aviation industry are said to have failed or expected to fail due to over relying the government. A government which is incapable of subsidy for the businesses
• Easy target for taxes: its only in Africa, where business is targeted easily for taxes when there is deficit in budget or just a need for any form of income source
• Poor access to local capital sources: in Africa, there is a time where accessing funds from local banks or other fund providers and financial institutions is hard, rare or are not yet into existence
• Infrastructure constraints: Many believe that infrastructure is not the heart of the problem in Africa’s aviation industry. There are a number of airports in the continent which are stable, have good runways and enough facilities for smooth landings. However, there are various challenges that air transport industries face including the inadequate or poor airport infrastructures, lack of human and physical capital. Moreover, there is a low connectivity and lack of soft and hard transit facilities in terminals and in the airports in general.
• Poor safety and security record: one of the most pressing challenges faced by African aviation industry is safety. As per many reports over this matter stated, the number of accidents has gone up when compared to the global. Most of these accidents have occurred repeatedly. This seems to have come from inconsistency in the implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted safety standards and practices

Conclusion and Recommendation Remarks

Africa’s aviation industry though it is low in an overall volume has experienced substantial progress over the last decade when compared to the other regions in the world. The industry still remains facing challenges over providing international services within the continent. There is lack of competition and are only few dominant airlines in the whole industry.

In addition to that, Africa faces challenges in safety and consumer protection, lack of regulations and inactive government actions, inadequate infrastructure, restricted transit visas and weak connectivity to the rest of the world too. To overcome these challenges and to bring the attention of the stakeholders in to the sector, this paper recommends to:

• Upgrade airport facilities as there is enough revenues from the airports to finance/invest the necessary infrastructure
• Reduce the cost of air travel to the affordability stage to maintain growth in aviation industry
• Improving regulatory frameworks and balancing the benefits from the sector
• Train professional teams in the aviation industry with the capability to establish monitoring and evaluation projects using driven-data approach
• Consistency and practice of international accepted safety standards in the aviation industry