Liberalisation initiatives of the airline industry in southern Africa: progress achieved and hindrances to implementation.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify liberalisation initiatives in the airline industry and their effects on airline performances in southern Africa. The study addresses the liberalisation of the airline industry, namely, the Paris Convention, the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs), and pooling agreements. The research involved an extensive literature search of liberalisation initiatives on the airline industry in southern Africa. This was complemented with personal interviews with several key personnel from seven regional airlines. From the study it is clear that southern African governments still oppose liberalisation by claiming to protect their sovereignty, yet they do not realise that the economic costs of this largely surpass the political costs they might need to face if the national airlines do not manage to compete in a liberalised environment and are obliged go out of business. Furthermore, the bilateral regulatory system remains a bottleneck in the overall development of the air transport network in southern Africa, thereby restraining the region’s potential for tourism growth and regional stability and sustainability.