How will it affect forwarders?
The exploitation of Africa by foreign companies can be traced back to its hundreds of years as a stomping ground for imperial powers. But even though the 54 countries that make up Africa today won their independence decades ago, the echoes remain in the form of closed borders and protectionist attitudes, which continue to hamper forwarders.
“African nations have been overprotective of their airspace in an effort to support their national airline, hence many countries remain closed,” Gadhia explained. “Currently, forwarder in Kenya has an urgent airfreight shipment to Lagos, they will have to consider routing it via Dubai. Likewise if a forwarder in Cairo has an urgent airfreight shipment for Johannesburg, they will have to consider options via Frankfurt.”
According to a recent IATA study, the absence of liberalization policies has pushed shippers toward reliance on larger foreign-owned carriers that have negotiated 4th and 5th freedom air rights between African countries. These carriers rely on connectivity through a few specific, well-established hubs in places like Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya. Of the top 10 African airlines, the study found that the four largest carriers operate with connecting structures only from their own respective hubs. Also, no major hubs have yet emerged in West or Central Africa.
As a dedicated cargo carrier, Astral Aviation has been able to operate scheduled freighter services from its hub in Nairobi to the U.K., Belgium, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Comoros, Somalia, South Sudan and South Africa. However, there were no free-trade agreements to facilitate these arrangements, so Gadhia had to painstakingly negotiate all of the above traffic rights on his own, which he said was a lengthy and exhausting process.
“Every country on the continent has its own aviation policy based on their Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreements,” he added. “It’s obvious that better interconnectivity will reduce cost and improve transit times for the freight forwarders and logistics community.”