South African Deputy Transport Minister Sindisiwe Lydia Chikunga reaffirmed the country’s support for opening Africa’s aviation markets. “South Africa supports the liberalisation of air transport in Africa,” she said in her keynote address at the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s Aviation Industry Growth Conference in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.

She highlighted that the International Air Transport Association, in its 'Future Growth Trend Highlights', had concluded that eight of the ten fastest growing aviation markets (in percentage terms) would be in Africa. The African aviation sector as a whole was expected to grow by 4.7%.

Furthermore, she pointed out, given the difficulties with terrestrial transport across the continent, air transport continued to offer a means of transporting cargo and facilitating business and tourism. She noted that September 27 had been World Tourism Day, when “once again we realised the value of aviation and tourism, culturally and economically, to our country and the continent”.

She urged the conference attendees to examine strategies and models, including research and development, to permit the aviation industry to help meet the challenges faced by Africa. As for African commercial aviation, its core challenges were safety, security, environmental protection, human resource development and capacity-building (including the empowerment of women). Regarding the sector in South Africa, she complained that 90% of the holders of Airline Transport Pilot Licences were white men and affirmed that the sector was “grossly untransformed”.

“Air transport plays a major role in the global economy,” she cited. “It is also one of the fastest growing sectors in the world economy.” Chikunga recounted that January 2014 had marked the centenary of commercial aviation. Over those 100 years, the sector had grown from carrying one passenger on that first flight to carrying 3.3-billion passengers a year. That latter figure had since increased to 3.5-billion, carried on 40-million flights annually.

The intergovernmental body that oversees global commercial aviation is the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which held its most recent assembly late last month. There, she highlighted, all eight African countries (including South Africa) that had stood for election to the ICAO council had been elected.

A major concern of the assembly was the development of policies, principles and programmes to reduce the aviation industry’s carbon dioxide emissions. “South Africa, together with the other African States who are members of the ICAO council, in this instance, contributed significantly in ensuring that the adoption of such schemes would not be detrimental to the development of aviation in the African continent,” she stated.