The Aero political and Regulatory Task Force held its 1st meeting at the AFRAA headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya on 2nd September, 2011. The meeting was attended by six (6) airlines (Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, EgyptAir, LAM Mozambique Airlines, South African Airways and Precision Air) and the members of AFRAA Secretariat.
At this meeting the Task Force adopted its Terms of Reference as proposed by the Secretariat with some amendments.
After extensive discussion and exchange of views the Committee made several conclusions and recommendation relating to the various aero political and regulatory issues currently facing the African airline industry. These were;
• EU- List of Banned Airlines (Blacklist)
• EU-ETS
• Global and Regional Liberalization
• Voluntary Airline Service Commitment Agreement
• Review of the Draft African Civil Aviation Policy
• Unjustifiably High Taxes and Charges
Following the Task Force meeting and based on its work and recommendation the Secretariat took the following action;
a. Submitted to the AU the modification and additions on the draft African Civil Aviation Policy proposed by Task Force. Most of these were incorporated in the draft policy.
b. Presented to the African union two papers and contributed to the preparation of a third paper to be submitted to the upcoming Conference of Ministers of Transport to be held in Luanda 21-24 November, 2011. The paper relate to,;
• Unjustifiably High Taxes and Charges being levied by African authorities and monopoly service providers
• The Critical shortage of professional manpower in aviation industry and measures that you should be taken
• Ratification of key international aviation conventions and treaties particularly the Cape Town Convention by African States.
The Secretariat also participated and contributed to the work of group of Aviation Experts convened by the African Union to validate the study on the "Evaluation f the Implementation of Yamoussoukro Decision" and the finalization of the African Civil Aviation Policy.
The Secretariat was part of the experts group established by the ECOWAS Commission for negotiating the 'Horizontal Air Service Agreement' with the European Union Commission. At the meeting of the negotiating group held in Cape Verde a number of the concern areas identified by the AFRAA Aero political Task Force were taken into account in the draft 'Horizontal Agreement' to be counter proposed to the EU by ECOWAS. These included among others issues of slot allocation to EU airports, application of anti-competition rules to EU carriers when their action affects competition within African designation by African States of airlines of other African countries.
