African countries have to step up their game in terms of collaboration if indeed the continent has any hopes of growing its aviation industry and competing with other continents on the globe, International Business Development Manager, of the OAG Aviation group, Mory Camara has said.
Speaking at the 12th Routes Africa Conference in Accra Monday, Mr. Camara though acknowledged a significant boost in airline connectivity in Africa in recent times compared to the past, maintained, that the continent is still lagging considerably. Cooperation on the part of African airlines he insisted is one major way to strengthen the aviation industry and boost connectivity to match up with the European countries and other continents which are far advanced in that regard.
“Aviation is a very difficult business and you may end up signing all the regulative framework but if the people in the industry don’t work together and take it really seriously, nothing will happen because they will be dictated by economics of wealth, politics, geography, and there is an increase in terms of connectivity, a 5% increase in terms of connectivity in Africa, it’s getting better but it’s far away from what it should be”, he said.
“Let’s try to look at coverage in terms of connectivity, in and out of Africa from the 10th largest city, you only have 30% that fly in and out so only 1/3 is covered in Africa. If you compare that to Europe you have nearly 97% of airline services from the 10 largest cities so there is a lot to be done and if we are not careful, a Single African Market, other continents will take advantage from Africans. We’ve really got to really shake off things and be serious about it”, he continued.
Meanwhile, Simon Allotey, Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority speaking to journalists on the sideline of the event said government is undertaking major projects in the sector to realise its vision of establishing Ghana as the aviation hub in the West-African sub-region.
“We are working on upgrading skills of personnel in the aviation industry, the Ghana Civil Aviation Academy is providing training for our air controllers, for our government safety inspectors. We are establishing the engineering aspect of the school also and the school has trained several personnel from the francophone countries and we continue to expand our programs. We are also working closely with the KNUST to recruit and engage the graduates from the aerospace engineering program so that these personnel can be taken on and trained as aircraft engineers and also as pilot, there is a lot going on within Ghana at the moment to position ourselves as the main aviation hub in West Africa", he noted.
The 12th Routes Africa Conference is a 3-day program which commenced today, July 16 and will end on Wednesday July 18, 2018, in Accra.
The Routes Africa conference and exhibition, the longest standing aviation forum, will see representatives of over 40 airlines, 50 airports, 15 tourism authorities and 20 top-level speakers will come together in Accra, to discuss air services to and from Africa.
The event which would be hosted by the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) would provide the platform for industry players across the continent to meet and discuss issues concerning the aviation sector with Ghana set to make tremendous strides in the industry after the conference.
