South Africa has missed out on opportunities in key air travel markets, owing to its reliance on a dominant national carrier and State-owned airports, an executive of privately owned Lanseria International Airport, north of Johannesburg, has argued. In fact, Lanseria operations deputy executive manager Trevor Teegler described South Africa’s model of State-owned airlines and airports as outdated and creating barriers to entry that were placing the country at a disadvantage.

He believes that South Africa has lost out to partially privatised Kenya Airways, which is rapidly expanding, targeting a connection to 115 destinations across 77 countries and six continents by 2021. In 2011, the airline, in which the Kenya government owns 48.9%, reached its target of 55 destinations across 45 countries and four continents.

“South Africa is losing out on those markets and commercially operated airlines struggle to compete in a market that they entered already at a disadvantage, [with State-owned models dominating],” noted Teegler.

He added that, unless State-owned South African Airways shaped its policy to become more competitive, it should make way for commercial enterprises.

Teegler also lamented the lack of political will to implement policies, such as the Yamoussoukro Declaration, which aims to promote seamless intra-Africa air travel. Instead, bilateral agreements have allowed Middle Eastern airline operators to capture markets that could have been serviced by operators in South Africa or other African countries.

Teegler was speaking at an event organised by the Transport Forum, focusing on transport policy.

The event was held at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), where UJ lecturer Tatenda Mbara stressed the importance of policy for good governance and how the implementation of policies reduced corruption risks.

City of Johannesburg transport department executive director Lisa Seftel said that proper policy development and implementation required building relationships between government and the private sector, especially since it dominated the market in terms of public transport using minibus taxis, to create mutually beneficial intermodal transport models.