The Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) identified five action items for industry stakeholders, governments and regulators at its 56th Annual General Assembly in Mauritius on 9 October 2026, as chief executive Aaron Munetsi told delegates that Africa must move from ambition and talk to execution if aviation is to act as a catalyst for intra-African trade, tourism and economic growth. AASA represents most of the airlines in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc.
The five items concern safety, costs, infrastructure, market access and regulation. On safety, AASA calls for investment in resources, effective oversight and training, with zero tolerance for shortcuts. It wants costs contained and aviation-related taxes, fees and charges reined in, with no new ones introduced. For airports and other aviation infrastructure, it asks for modernisation and maintenance for efficiency, with affordable user charges applied for those services. On market access, it seeks the elimination of anti-competitive and protectionist restrictions and the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), adding that liberalisation must move beyond declarations and become a practical reality.
The fifth item covers standardised regulations, recognition of licences and harmonised procedures across borders.
Munetsi said the industry and governments have spent decades discussing the challenges facing African aviation and commissioning consultants to produce expensive strategies that were then left unimplemented. “Strategies don’t move people. Now it is time to make the difficult decisions and execute them,” he said. He added that Africa can no longer afford the gap between strategies and implementation, and that the aviation sector must lead the charge for intolerance of it.
He described Africa’s young and expanding population as an opportunity for aviation and for economic growth and inclusion, and said the industry continues to operate well below its potential. World Bank and OECD studies predict that around 300 million people will make up Africa’s growing middle class by 2030, driving demand for air travel to, from and within the continent. Munetsi said aviation should be designed around reasonably priced flights that depart and arrive on time, with convenient business-oriented schedules, bought through frictionless digital payments compatible with mobile money, offering products suited to traders as well as tourists and using efficient airports and border processes.
Munetsi said the value aviation generates extends far beyond the airlines themselves. “Efficient air connectivity increases trade, passenger traffic and tourism while helping Africa trade more effectively with itself. Aviation does not just deliver passengers. We deliver the catalytic effect to economies,” he said.
