An aviation expert, Gervais Djondo has attributed the stunted growth suffered by African airlines to intra Africa air traffic restrictions and multiple taxation.

Djondo who is also the President of Togo-based regional airline, Asky said it was regrettable that African heads of government were signatories to air treaties bordering on liberalisation, stressing that such agreements merely existed on paper.

Djondo who was speaking to newsmen after the launch of ASKY Airline Abuja – Lome route, said the airline suffered bureaucratic bottleneck in securing air traffic rights in many countries that it indicated interest to fly.

“There have been agreements signed between Heads of State, ECOWAS, within African Union (AU), all talking about “Open Skies”, but in reality, these skies are not open. People just kick against the regulations that have been put in place, making it difficult for companies that are running now. It is a challenge that must be over come”, he said.

He also identified high taxation as another burden threatening the existence of many African airlines.

“Another major challenge I see is the taxes. We are subjected to too many taxes, landing taxes, light taxes and so many other taxes. We believe again that we should arrive at a point when these things should be lighter for the airlines and then lighter for the passengers because these things are passed on to the passengers.

Concerning the airline’s expansion programme he said, we intend to move gradually. We want to give priority to covering West and Central Africa, give opportunities to our businessmen and women to move freely within these two regions”, he said.

“We intend to control large chunk of the market in West and Central Africa. After that, we will think about long haul. We will now fly to Asia, America and Europe”, he added.

Reward Akwu