Abstract
In air transportation, activities such as the organisation, governance and standardisation of safety are
typically achieved through the regulation of commercial air services. It has been argued that it further
protected state-owned airlines in their facilitation of travel for trade and global relations. The regulations
in the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (US) were later relaxed to develop and
liberalise the aviation industry in those regions. This led to the formation of the Yamoussoukro
Declaration on a New African Air Transport Policy (YD) by the African Union (AU). The YD was set to
help Africa prepare for the potential adverse consequences of the economic deregulation in the US, the
integration of air transport and liberalisation policies in Europe and to start the aviation liberalisation
process in Africa. The YD was initiated by heads of states or organisations representing states and its
implementation has been slow. International air services are managed through the restrictive Bilateral
Air Services Agreements (BASA) created after the Chicago Convention. Therefore, airlines in Africa
have been dependent on the decisions and regulations made at government level to move forward with
international air transport liberalisation. This restricts airline plans and those of potential entrants to the
market. Since 2018, there has been renewed interest in liberalisation through the creation of the Single
African Air Transport Market (SAATM).
The research presented in this thesis considered the impact of liberalisation on airlines in the EU and
the US. It further discussed the challenges faced by aviation in Africa and the reasons behind YD
implementation delays. The aim of this research was to investigate and determine how implementing
the YD, “opening the skies” and liberalising air transport has and is likely to affect African airlines. The
study aimed to examine the extent to which the airlines were prepared to liberalise, their understanding
of liberalisation, the benefits and impediments they associate with liberalisation and if they were likely
to survive post liberalisation.
A post-positivism, inductive, qual–qual, explorative and descriptive research design was used to gain
in-depth knowledge through face-to-face semi-structured interviews of representatives drawn from 12
African airlines and semi-structured questionnaires responded to by representatives of 10 commercial
aviation regulatory authorities drawn from four Regional Economic Communities (RECs), respectively.
The participants were selected by way of purposive sampling. Airline sample criteria were based on
commercial international air service activities, while regulator criteria were based on jurisdiction safety
oversight.
The study found that airlines were not adequately represented in the formulation of liberalisation
legislation, leading to airline operational matters being ignored. It is therefore, recommended that
airlines or their representative body, the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), be given an opportunity
to pass YD related resolutions at AU level. It was further found that liberalisation can be initiated through harmonising safety standards, competition laws and other relevant regulations, through RECs, which will allow for best practices per country to be adopted by the REC and tested before implementation at
the continental level. Based on the experience of the EU and the US, it was established that there were
more benefits to the YD than there were limitations, however, the obstacles that existed contributed to
the delay in implementation. It is recommended that for effective YD implementation, the outstanding
matters, such as regulatory text, competition rules and others must be concluded by the YD
implementation organs. The protection of state-owned airlines through subsidies was found to be
unsustainable and anti-competitive, to the extent that it was believed they would not survive post-YD
implementation. It is recommended that airlines practice frugality, invest in skills, ensure they have
capital injection, optimise network and cooperate with other stakeholders to operate while providing a
competitive service to passengers to ensure they are not casualties of liberalisation.
This study combines the views of African airlines and regulators on the impact of YD on African airlines
from four major RECs on the continent. It has made an original contribution to the body of knowledge
about the involvement of airlines in the liberalisation policy, regulation or legislation development from
national to continental level and it is further displayed that delays to YD implementation negatively
impact African airlines. The study has further highlighted the AOC validation inspection audits, imposed
by contracting countries on foreign carriers, between countries who have agreed at BASA level to
recognise the competency of each other’s aeronautical authorities. The limitations to the study include:
The dearth of literature on aviation in Africa and the liberalisation of air services operations on the
continent
The size of the sample
The non-response from North African airlines majority of which are from the Arab Maghreb Union
(AMU / UMA) REC
The COVID-19 pandemic.