ADDIS ABABA · AIR
Africa’s single air transport market gains members but not yet traffic rights
More states have signed than are implementing, and the gap between the two is where intra-African connectivity still stalls.
Compiled with AI · reviewed and signed by the desk
The Single African Air Transport Market has continued to add signatory states, and the count is now well past half the continent. Implementation is another matter: fifth-freedom rights, the provision that would actually let a carrier pick up traffic between two foreign African states, remain restricted in practice by bilateral protections that signature has not overridden.
The carriers positioned to exploit full liberalisation have been explicit about it. Ethiopian has built a hub strategy that assumes connecting traffic, and ASKY was constructed around a regional network model that only works with liberal traffic rights.
The resistance is understandable and unlikely to vanish. National carriers in smaller markets reasonably fear being outcompeted by larger neighbours, and the protection they receive is politically cheap to maintain.
Our read: judge SAATM by route launches rather than signatures. Each genuinely new intra-African city pair is worth more than another accession announcement.